This dictionary of Leicestershire and Rutland place-names examines their origins and meanings. It includes not only towns, villages and hamlets, but also rivers, streams, hills, fields and woods, as well as streets, buildings and public houses. A comprehensive description of the origin and evolution of each name is given, bringing to life the history of the place in a new and remarkably revealing way. Few are aware of the background of the names that are part of our everyday language, and Anthony Poulton-Smith uncovers this aspect of Leicestershire and Rutland's rich history to great effect.

A traveller through the length and breadth of England is soon aware of cultural differences, some of which are clearly visible in the landscape. The eminent English historian Charles Phythian-Adams has put forth that England, through much of the last millennium, could be divided into regional societies, which broadly coincided with groups of pre-1974 counties. These shire assemblages in turn lay largely within the major river drainage systems of the country. In this unusual study Alan Fox tests for, and establishes, the presence of an informal frontier between two of the proposed societies astride the Leicestershire-Lincolnshire border, which lies on the watershed between the Trent and Witham drainage basins. The evidence presented suggests a strong case for a cultural frontier zone, which is announced by a largely empty landscape astride the border between the contrasting settlement patterns of these neighbouring counties.

Pevsner wrote that "Leicestershire is not a county of extremes" and agreed that "no other county in England surpasses Rutland for unspoiled quiet charm". The large and the small Midland counties possess a varied and rewarding range of buildings. Church architecture encompasses the classical Normanton, preserved in remote isolation from the flood of Rutland Water, to Market Harborough with its elegant medieval steeple, and a fine group of Victorian churches in Leicester. The major country houses include Belvoir Castle, Staunton Harold and Burley-on-the-Hill, while the more modest homes of the late nineteenth century include notable work by Ernest Gimson, Voysey and a garden city at Leicester by Parker & Unwin. Leicestershire also possesses fine modern buildings, from its architecturally progressive schools to the justly renowned buildings of Leicester University, dominated by Stirling & Gowan's Engineering Building.