This monumental work was published in conjunction with a superb exhibition called ‘Le diable, la cigogne et le petit lapin’ presented in Paris by the Service Historique last autumn. It has got to be the definitive work on the subject of insignias and heraldry in the French Air Service in World War I. Beautifully presented and completely detailed, this book is a pleasure just to look at, as well as a triumph of scholarship, and, in my opinion, devotion. In the past, I have always been rather surprised that there was such a lack of bellicosity in French fuselage art, and this lovely book has given a possible answer. In the first decade of the twentieth century, there was a very popular illustrated book of Lafontaine’s fables in France. This would have been preferred reading for a lot of the young men who were to fight and die in the air ten years later. Look at the pictures in that book, and it is obvious where so many of the insignia came from. I am also reminded that we only ever held a quarter of the Western Front, and that we should not underestimate the sacrifices made by our French ally. The Service Historique is to be congratulated.