Three years ago, I took with me on a speaking trip to Australia and New Zealand the manuscript of a new handbook on historical character interpretation. This morning, the review copy arrived on my desk. The book is Stacy F. Roth's "Past into Present: Effective Techniques for First-Person Historical Interpretation" (1998, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill & London, ISBN 0-8078-4710-0, paper). It covers pretty well the waterfront in this interesting form of interpretation, with chapter headings like "Before interpretation starts: planning, research and development"; "Developing a character"; "Interpreting to children"; "Interpreting to audiences with special needs"; and she comes up to the frontiers of this form of interpretation in "Interpreting special situations: conflict, controversy and heightened emotion". The book is filled with practical bits of experience and advice, culled from many sources. My own feeling is that it is by far the most useful book on interpretation I've read since reading Freeman Tilden years ago. While reading the draft, I was so impressed that I raved about it to my Australian and Kiwi colleagues. Now, it is actually available. No one interested in historical character interpretation can afford NOT to read it. Harry Harry Needham Special Advisor - Programme Development Canadian War Museum 330 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Canada K1A 0M8 Voice: (819) 776-8612 Fax (819) 776-8623 Email: [log in to unmask]