We bought a copy of the Penguin guide about a year ago, and my parents in law also have a couple of older editions which I browsed in over Christmas. As I think has been mentioned, the guide has some bias towards certain kinds of recorded sound and away from HIP performances, which a knowledgeable reader can allow for when consulting it. But the guide also makes judgements about the worth of composers and works, and here the bias of one or more of the authors can show up in sneering comments about music they dislike, or simple lack of coverage. In the earlier volumes I saw, Delius had more space than Schoenberg, Berg and Webern put together, though in our recent copy the balance has been redressed. What saddens me about this is that the Penguin Guide is an influential work that sits in all good CD shops for consultation, and music lovers interested in exploring areas of the repertoire little known to them might be tempted to take the views of its authors as gospel. (Of course here in Britain there is a wide range of music broadcast on Radio 3, which should allow people the chance to form their own opinions about it before investing in recordings, but the authority of the printed word can weigh heavily). Virginia Knight