Its Foreword by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber encourages recruitment for the Millennium ringing on 1st January 2000. The booklet's style is reminiscent of a recruitment leaflet emanating from the Central Council some years ago, in breaking its content down into a series of posed questions and then supplying the answers. It is not a technical treatise, although perhaps a sketch through a tower showing the belfry, turning bells and ringers below would not have been amiss. It draws on the romantic images of the sound of bells soaring above city traffic and pealing from distant towers on a summers evening.
Ringers are of all ages and come from all walks of life.
Indeed, one is quoted as making his living from quiz machines in public houses. With its traces of Northern humour, it even exhorts us not to believe the rumour that bellringing and the consumption of alcohol go hand in hand. Next comes learning and mastering a simple method, following by moving on to the more complex - all at your own pace'. How I wish this was universally the case, rather than the increasingly common trend of rushing the pupil on to Surprise ringing, before control and striking are of a good standard. This useful booklet is there essentially to draw novices into the fold and, as such, it needs offering to the wider non-ringing public.