Since it was first published in 1982 British Archives has established itself as the premier reference work to holdings of archives and manuscript collections throughout the UK. The 3rd edition has been extensively revised and enlarged with more than 150 new entries, further widening the range of the book. Entries are structured to show the archives of the organisation as distinct from deposited collections and significant non-manuscript material, and additional details of fax number and conservation provision are included for the first time. All the existing entries have been significantly updated, together with the select bibliography and list of useful addresses of various organisations involved in the care and custody of archives. The introduction provides an invaluable guide to researchers using archives, including a summary of the relevant legislation and a detailed description of the usual holdings of county and other local authority record offices.

Over the past ten years the attention given in British universities to the study of southern Africa has grown rapidly. In 1969 a symposium held under the auspices of the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom (ASAUK) to review the state of current work on southern Africa in Britain and in Africa itself revealed the diversity of research in progress, as well as practical and political problems involved in such research.