'The book is an excellent treatise on a practical approach to environmental data analysis. It is logically organized to correspond to the routine steps a researcher would (or should) follow in analyzing data. Hosking and Wallis have described a complex subject in a simple and logical manner that can be understood by both the layman and the expert. Their arguments are theoretical and intuitive, and are supported by numerous examples, figures, and references. I highly recommend this book for all analysts not only for the L-moment approach, but for the practical, conceptual and philosophical concerns that are inherent to all analyses of environmental data.' Nathaniel B. Guttman, Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society