In view of the dearth of good textbooks a new book on aviation insurance is very welcome. This book is related closely to London market practice and covers the market generally. It is in many ways a good textbook, well written and referenced, and easy to use but one can only regret the over-concentration on both the London market and United Kingdom law. In particular one misses a thorough description of the work and duties of brokers who handle the bulk of the world’s aviation insurance. There is some comment in the U.K. legislation on brokers but the non-broker reader would get no idea of how brokers do their work.

Similarly the crucial area of valuation and limits of indemnity is ignored. In order to cover the topic one would need to have some coverage of technical aspects of the aerospace industry.

Although London still leads the world aviation insurance market some coverage of other markets is needed for the sake of completeness. Practice varies, especially in general aviation insurance. There is a useful section on reinsurance, but no description of how reinsurance is used specifically in aviation. One really needs some good examples of slips, treaties, fleet valuations and reinsurance plans to show aviation insurance in a live way.

One could go on. It is a worthwhile book but is too theoretical. Hopefully there will be a second edition with better coverage.