One Per Learner Book: For Church Bell Ringers by Pamela Copson

 One Per Learner Book: For Church Bell Ringers by Pamela Copson is an introductory workbook and textbook for individuals who are learning to bell ring in the style used in England, including change ringing. This book covers various topics, including the names of the parts of the bell, bell handling including handstroke and backstroke, ringing in rounds as well as Plain hunting, Plain Bob and Grandsire Doubles, including the essentials which are needed for these methods, such as rope sight, striking and bobs to name just a few.

This was a good book to develop theory knowledge for individuals new to bell ringing, making it a good book to read alongside one practising bell ringing. There are also lots of activities and spaces to include notes of dates throughout the book, such as finishing off the method diagram or recording one's first time ringing rounds instance. This makes a good record for the learner, however, it should be said that there are dedicated bell ringing record books for learners available to buy which would presumably have much more space in them. I also liked how this was a good pocket-size book that one could read in the bell tower when not ringing, and it is good that there are follow-up books for when the learner progresses.

There are a few things which I did not like about this book; as I hope to make clear, this book could have been written as two separate books, which would have been much more beneficial to the learner. For starters, the theoretical knowledge progresses very quickly and leaves much content either not covered in enough detail or not really covered. Part of this was so learners could ask their teachers about these things. However, it would have still been better to include some of this content, such as how to read method diagrams, in more detail so that after the learner has been taught this by their instructor, they can consolidate this information using the book and even revise the content at a later date. As such, Grandsire Doubles and potentially Plain Bob may have been better in a separate book on a level between this book and the follow-up book. Furthermore, the writing was extremely small, and some was not very clearly written; one could not determine what letter or number a given digit was meant to be. This made it a very poor reading experience, which I think may have been due to this book potentially being handwritten.

Altogether, I rate this book 2 stars because it is a good book that provides a good introduction to campanology. Still, it makes some really big leaps without explaining some of the more difficult topics in more detail, and the writing is not very readable in some places more than others, which really affects the reading experience. However, despite this, I would recommend this book to individuals learning bell ringing as one book they should read, but they should not rely on this book and read it alongside various other books on campanology.