When Freemasonry is under attack, it is good to have at least some means of defence, and perhaps the best means of defence is to present the public with a display of all that has made the Craft a force for good in the world. If that display can be brought together in a splendid ‘coffee-table’ book for our non-masonic friends and neighbours, so much the better. But is there such a book?
    The one title best fitted to this task is Freemasonry: A Celebration of the Craft, produced in 1992 to coincide with the 275th anniversary of Grand Lodge. Now it is available again, to the great benefit of the Craft and to the certain delight of all those who have not seen it before. Edited by two noted masonic historians and Past Masters of Quatuor Coronati Lodge – John Hamill, Librarian and Curator of the United Grand Lodge of England, and RA Gilbert, until this year editor of AQC – the book is a large and sumptuous work with a wealth of illustrations, many in colour, and an informative text that is never heavy or tedious.
    The reader is taken on a journey through the essentials of Freemasonry: its history, its virtues and the three pillars of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty – under which we are shown the striking role of the Craft in every field of human endeavour. English masons will note a slight bias towards America, but the numerical strength of the Craft there makes this inevitable, and there is a careful balance in presenting Regular Freemasonry worldwide. Perhaps the most useful section for masons who want to combat negative views of the Craft is the gallery of 275 Famous Masons. That, together with the Foreword by our Grand Master, HRH The Duke of Kent, and the Introduction to the section on the Third Pillar (Beauty) by the RW Assistant Grand Master, the Marquess of Northampton, will see off all but the most blinkered of our opponents.
    David J Peabody