This is a lively and readable account of one of the great problems of mathematics and its solution and can be recommended to all readers who are interested and prepared to make the effort to follow it. The Mathematical Gazette ... it will please every reader. And last but not least, it is a thin book, which will not eat much space in your library; the contents to weight ratio is well above the average. EMS ... a gentle introduction to graph theory ... provides a nice overview, and many details, of various approaches to the four-colour problem ... it has a place on the shelf of the professional graph theorist ... the book has much to recommend it. Zentralblatt MATH