The BBC Micro And Electron Book by Gavin Haines, published by McGraw Hill and prices at £11.95 is a standard introduction to the BBC and Electron. Opening up with the "Babbage to BBC" and moving on to a rather mixed bag of material. The sort of hints and tips found in the magazines are combined with sound reference material, especially in the breakdown of memory usage.

Unfortunately, there's some confusion about filing systems "AFS for use with second processors" - what's that? There's also a bit of a dated feel with no knowledge of the Electron Plus 3.

Still it's an easy read and quite entertaining with Mr. Gradgrind (Nickolas Nickelby) and Socrates dragged in at one point.

The book rather lacks the depth that a specialist book can provide and only adds to a pile of "general introductions", none of them able to be comprehensive or up to date.

The cursory notes on disc filing and Econet and an assembly language section which promises well but has to break off just as it gets interesting are cases in point.

Shingo Sugiura