Pick of the picture books: The Encyclopaedia of Wales

With encyclopaedias of Scotland and Ireland already published (in 1994 and 2003, respectively) it is a wonder that it has taken the proud Welsh nation so long to put itself on the map with a weighty and authoritative volume, published simultaneously in Welsh and in English. Edited by John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur I Lynch, The Encyclopaedia of Wales (University of Wales Press, £65) is the result of a decade of work by over 400 contributors and runs all the way from A oes heddwch? ("is there peace?", a question asked during an eisteddfod) to Zulu, a 1964 film "paying tribute to the South Wales Borderers' bravery in the battle of Rorke's Drift".