Intended as a work of reference, this critical bibliography is a description of the historical records published by, or in the name of, all the military, para-military and police forces which served the British Empire and Commonwealth. It is based upon information received from 200 contributors and from contacts with 78 military libraries worldwide. It gives a listing of all such books, for all of the dominions, colonies, protectorates and mandated territories, from the time of Robert Clive's India through to 1993. Each entry provides a precise technical description of the book in question and also a summary of the evolution and war services of the Regiment or Corps which it records. There are full entries in respect of 2100 unit histories and selected reference sources, plus 250 footnote entries. Every entry carries a symbol indicating the book's rarity, its value as a research source and the name of at least one library where a copy is known to be lodged. The main body of the bibliography is supported by a full range of indexes and appendices, all cross-referenced and all designed to make the book "user friendly". Among the many main index headings, there are specialist indexes devoted to "authors", "battles & campaigns", "Irish Units", "medical units", "persons mentioned", "police forces", "racial minority soldiers", "Scottish units", "ships mentioned", "special & irregular units", "women's forces", etc. Each geographical section is prefaced by a chronology of its military past, thereby setting the bibliographic entries in their historical context. The work contains more detail than may be found in a bibliography of traditional format and aims to provide a "word picture" of each listed title. Information given for each book includes the following: title details, authorship, publisher, date of publication, binding, illustrations, maps, Rolls of Honours and Awards, critical review and observations, assessment of rarity, assessment as a research source and name of library where seen. The subjects indexed include among others artillery, cavalry and armoured forces, engineers, infantry, militia and volunteers, police and para-military, regulars and irregulars and specialist corps. This volume was one of three titles shortlisted for the Library Association's 1995 Besterman Medal which has been awarded annually since 1970 to the best bibliography published within the previous year. "Regiments" was also the winner of the best specialist reference work in 1995 awarded by the Literati Club (sponsored by MCB University Press). The title was also selected as a British Council exhibit at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1995. "Regiments" should be of interest to librarians, military historians and archivists, genealogists, collectors of regimental histories, medals and militaria, as well as book dealers, museum curators and auctioneers. Roger Perkins is also the author of "Gunfire in Barbary" (with Capt K.J. Douglas-Morris RN), "Angels in Blue Jackets" (with J.W. Wilson), "The Kashmir Gate", "The Punjab Mail Murder", "Operation Paraquat - the Battle for South Georgia 1982", "The Amritsar Legacy" and "Pathfinder Pilot".
