This is such an accessible book that has made me feel much more confident with my surname studies and given me clear directions on what I should be looking for and where my research should be headed. While I had already realised that I needed to go back as far as possible to get as close as possible to the origin of surnames in my family, I can also use distribution maps when I find that my family lived in certain areas. I also need to spend time looking for place names, occupations, or topographical features in those areas that may have originally provided the origin of individual surnames. The author teaches us to be sceptical of convenient surname definitions, for instance is it likely in a country where brown hair is very common that the surname Brown would be given due to hair colour?
I have some very common surnames, such as Brown, which this book helpfully describes and tells me that the research on this surname doesn't provide a clear definition. I also have surnames that aren't English and aren't common worldwide, never mind in Britain, so there is no definition I'm aware of, only the research I've been conducting - but this book is helpful for that too - as I've written about in the paragraph above.
There are some excellent chapters on surnames of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. A reasonable amount of history described means that the reader can get a real sense of the events of the period that surnames were formed - and why certain surnames occur in certain areas.
If you'd like to begin surname research, or just get a better grasp of what a surname is - then read this book. It's short, so won't take up too much time; but full of very useful information. An added bonus is how readable it is. Give it a go!