Published by MacMillan at £8.95, Graham Bishop's book is an interesting one for the project-minded BBC or Electron owner. The Spectrum projects won't interest the individual owner but of course a school, with various computers, will appreciate the spread of machines.

The first and third parts of the book have a considerable bias towards the electronic inards of the microcomputer rather than the high level software. In the first, there's a fairly low level explanation of how a computer works. The third brings you the actual projects. Sandwiched inbetween is the 'Bishop Collection' of programs. Too many Spectrum listings for our liking. The listings are a bit of a filler.

The real value of the book is in the third section with a BBC and Electron motherboard project, to which the hobbyist or student can connect an Analogue to Digital and Digital to Analogue Converter, or there's a simple latch card for Electron only.

The book proves to be a bit of hotchpotch and £8.95 may be a bit much for the third section projects only. Any school with an introduction to computers course might also benefit from the introductory sections and software to type in.