Sean Lang on the updated Oxford encyclopedia that includes the September 11 attacks, but not President George WBush - or his father

Nothing in learning can match the pleasure of browsing through a good encyclopedia. Alphabetical order produces its own serendipity - hovercrafts lead to Huguenots, poems sit between plumbing and poisons. The editors of this edition have dropped the thematic arrangement of the original in favour of the sort of literal alphabeticalism that matches the way children conceptualise. Thus: “Seven wonders of the world” rather than “Wonders of the world, seven”, “Muslims” rather than “Islam”.

These are attractively designed books, just the right Beano album size, with good use of colour and clear text. The margins are wide, which allows for major last-minute entries; these must be the first children’s books to include a paragraph about the September 11 attacks.

Entries are clearly cross-referenced, and separate index and biography volumes allow children to follow through themes for project work. The language is accessible, if fairly functional in tone - “Opossums are marsupials (“pouched mammals”) that live in North and South America” - but there are occasional lighter touches: “Rather surprisingly, water is not very good at wetting things”; “Put simply, when we say that someone is intelligent we mean they are clever”.

Any encyclopedia faces the problem of constant updating. I bet the editors hate Cambodia, which changed its name to Kampuchea and then changed it back again, and the section on pop and rock, unchanged from the 1998 edition, is already looking - well, so 1998.

But the updated edition does mention Tony Blair’s second term, and gives the latest state-of-play on membership of the EU and the euro. And it’s interesting to see Bill Clinton (sans Monica) still in the biography volume, while the presidents Bush, p re and fils, are both left out.

This volume also has useful themed lists - “religious leaders”, “scientists” and “revolutionaries and military leaders” which, surprisingly, includes Bonnie Prince Charlie - by all accounts he was neither.