Introduction

This book covering FV430 Series of vehicles is part of a series of titles from Pen and Sword as part of their ‘Images at War’ series. These books cover the subject matter mostly in photographs and so offer a great visual reference for anyone interested in the subject matter regardless of the reason for that interest. For the modeller these books represent a cornucopia when it comes to visual information.

Review

This offering from Pen and Sword is part of the ‘Images at War’ series. This series of books are soft backed offerings having a good card cover with a very good spine to the book that keeps the contents in good order. This book covering FV430 Series has been authored by Rob Griffin who has written a small number of titles for Pen and Sword covering modern British Army Armour. The contents of this title are provided over 216 pages of good quality semi gloss paper.

The contents are presented in the following sections:
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 – Development
Chapter 2 – Description
Chapter 3 – Trials and Service
Chapter 4 – Variants
Chapter 5 – Growing Old Gracefully

The dedicated text in this offering is unusually substantial which is not the usual layout of these books as they are normally offered as visual reference over written information. The text written by Rob Griffin is well written and clearly shares his knowledge of the subject with the reader. This particular title in the ‘Images of War, series covering the FV430 will be of interest to anybody wanting to know about the FV430 series of vehicles rather than the modeller purely looking for visual reference; a role this title serves equally well.

As I have said there is a lot of text in this offering that is mixed with well chosen photographs. The mix of text and photographs results in an ergonomic mix of text telling you the information of the vehicle and the photographs showing the information on the vehicle. The captions that accompany each of the photographs are well written and provide clarity to the image as well as directing the viewer to points of interest. I have been very impressed with the approach taken by Rob Griffin in this title.

The photographic quality is a mix in so much as some of the images covering the early types in trials is limited in number and so the author has been restricted in choice on some aspects of the title. With that said for the most part the photographic quality is first rate.

Conclusion

In terms of an informational title I am very impressed by the way that Rob Griffin has tackled this title. I was expecting to find ten or so pages of text and the rest of the title to be photographs, but Rob Griffin has provided much more written detail that will attract those interested in learning about the FV430 family as well as the Modeller looking primarily for visual reference. I am also so impressed with the style of Rob Griffin I am looking into the other titles he has authored ‘The Royal Armoured Corps in the Cold War 1946 – 1990’ and ‘Challenger 2 The British Main Battle Tank’. The result of all this is a book that will appeal regardless of your interest in the FV430 Family.