BOOKSHOP WINDOW

OXFORD COMPANION TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR, ed. I C B Dear and M R D Foot, Oxford, £30

Churchill gets seven pages, Hitler six-and-a-half, Mussolini four and a bit, Schindler nine lines. The Nuremburg trials get five but Dresden (Raid on) only half a page. This vast 1,340-page work of reference raises inevitable questions of degree: six pages on the Lend-Lease agreement, while the concentration camps are wrapped up in three? But among the 1,750 (woodenly factual) entries is everything you'll ever need to know about battles, campaigns, weapons and strategy, along with less immmediate concerns such as Hollywood, jerry cans and the role of religion.