Anne Riches

Mythical creatures drawn largely from medieval travellers' tales, but encompassing civilisations from the Sumerians to the Wild West. A dictionary? No, this is really an astonishing ark filled with beasts from a fabulous zoo far more varied and entertaining than anything from ordinary natural history. From Abaia and Abath to Ziz and Zu, from the microscopic Gigelorum that nests in a mite's ear to the giant serpent Jormungandor who encircles the whole globe, there are beasts from every corner of man's imagination: the light-hearted Fearsome Critters of lumberjack tales find a place alongside the Sirrush of Babylon and the Winged Bulls of Assyria. Some of the fabulous beasts turn out to be real creatures in disguise - a Cameleopard is a kind of glamourised giraffe -while others are almost, but not quite, human. Among the six hundred entries are some which are full-scale essays in their own right, as on Phoenix or Giants; and just in case it seems as though the authors dreamt up the entire book, there is a detailed list of books for the would-be hunter in this mythical jungle.

Ayrshire and Arran is an area of striking contrasts. Its landscape ranges from sand dunes to rolling pastures to moors. The local architecture is similarly diverse, marrying natural beauty with industry and modernity. This survey, featuring specially commissioned photographs and maps, offers the kind of detailed and comprehensive analysis for which the Pevsner Architectural Guides are known. Highlights include the monument at the Skelmorlie Aisle and Robert Burns's birthplace in Alloway; the stones of Machrie Moor; medieval castles and planned towns; early churches and abbeys; and some of the best-known country houses, Culzean Castle and Dumfries House.

Glasgow has a wide array of architectural treasures: the greatest medieval cathedral in Scotland; fragments of a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century 'merchant city'; the well-preserved heart of a planned new town, Blythswood; a city centre dense with Victorian and Edwardian commercial buildings; stately nineteenth-century terraces lining the Great Western Road and picturesquely crowning Woodlands Hill; opulent villas in suburbs like Pollokshields and Kelvinside; and streets of tenements from the workaday to the grand. The twentieth century has encircled the city with a broad belt of public housing, and this too has a fascinating history that encompasses garden suburbs, early experiments in high-rise, comprehensive redevelopments and new interpretations of the tenement tradition. Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Alexander 'Greek' Thomson are, of course, internationally known, but the exceptional talents of Glasgow's many other architects, such as Charles Wilson, James Salmon Jr. and Jack Coia, have helped to shape the city's distinctive character.