The Tenacious Mars Effect, Suitbert Ertel and Kenneth Irving, Urania Trust, 194 The Butts, Frome, Somerset BA11 4AG, 1996, ISBN 1-871989-159-9, hardback, 180 pp, £9.95.

Michel Gauquelin’s ‘Mars Effect’, claiming that sports champions are statistically likely to have been born with Mars is rising or culminating, has been the key scientific issue in astrology since its publication in 1955. This book consists of three parts, of which the second is Suitbert Ertel’s replication and revision of Gauquelin’s results. The first, Kenneth Irving’s account of the controversy from 1955 to 1996 and the third, Jim Lippard’s chronology (Appendix 2) are significant historical accounts of the engagement between the Effect’s supporters and its opponents amongst scientific sceptics.