'This paperback edition is a welcome development ... the wealth of detail and comprehensive treatment of the street-names ... no serious student of the city's history can afford to be without it.'

I A Fraser, Scottish Place-Name News

'Readers of Stuart Harris's The Place Names of Edinburgh, a huge and hugely diverting compendium of many aspects of Edinburgh's story, will come away with much absorbing information which adds to their understanding and enjoyment of the city. ...'

'The range of sources consulted and the masterly fashion in which the author marshals his material are truly impressive, and it is difficult to envisage that his work will be superseded as one of the major reference works on the history of the city. For it yields much more than simply the names and dates of streets, and acts as a kind of topographically-based encyclopaedia. ...'

'The book covers the city district as defined in 1975, and the changes wrought within the area over the centuries are the focus of the long and informative introduction. It summarises the development not only of place names, but also of the accelerated changes in Edinburgh's topography during the past 250 years as housing and industry swallowed the city's rural hinterland. Not the least of Harris's achievements is to record the names which have been lost to urbanisation, lovely Scots terms reflecting the qualities or features of the terrain recorded by its long-gone inhabitants: Bonnyfield, Honeymug, Double Dykes, Mounthooly and countless others. ...'

'There is an agreeably leisurely quality to much of this toponymical exploration, but even the more laconic paragraphs contain much matter. ...'

'For one man to have gathered so much information is a great achievement ... Harris was well aware that in attempting an authoritative account there is always room for more work. His book will surely provide the necessary stimulus. As the reference point for future writers on Edinburgh's history it will probably, and deservedly, become known simply as "Harris".'

-- Dr Tristram N Clarke
Book of the Old Edinburgh Club