Welsh Journals

sophistication of oral culture whose significance in Europe as a whole has been reassessed in the author's Formation of the Medieval West (1994). Stimulating, sometimes provocative (as in the ungenerous assertion on p.218 that 'little progress' has been made in the study of medieval literacy), the volume under review offers many valuable insights into the use of language in medieval societies. It thus amply demonstrates the importance of a subject of enquiry which Professor Richter has done so much to define and develop. HUW PRYCE Bangor THE Military CAMPAIGNS OF THE WARS OF THE ROSES. By Philippa Haigh. Alan Sutton, Gloucester, 1995, Pp. 206, £ 18.99. THE Battle OF Towton. By A. W Boardman. Alan Sutton, Gloucester, 1995. Pp. 176, £ 18.99. Very soon, it will be possible to explore Henry VI's Kenilworth and Henry VIII's Nonsuch in an afternoon and still make a detour to take in the battles of Barnet and St Albans on the way This may bring a welcome reconciliation between the worlds of the scholars and the battle enthusiasts. Once it is possible to alter the landscape of a battle site, or alternate between disputed battle sites at the touch of a button, plans of engagement will be precise enough to appeal to the Sealed Knot and yet so variable that the most ardent university purist will be unable to complain. In addition, where battlefields have undergone either long-term change or suffered in the wave of development of the last few years, virtual reality may provide at least some compensation. Such advantages must be won rather than wished. The issue is not so much whether consumers will buy the relevant computer programmes as whether historians will generate the money, time and enthusiasm to create ones of sufficient depth and seriousness. If books on battles offer the opportunity to take our bearings for the future on the screen, these two rather desultory efforts do not bode well. Only in part is this the fault of the authors. Given that the subject matter lends itself to a visual presentation, and that these books have between them more than a hundred photographs and many more diagrams, the publisher should have been far more strenuous in searching out and creating something better than the abundance of drab and poorly defined monochrome illustrations found here. The pictures of the battlefield finds from Towton are