Advance to an Ideal: Fight to Raise the Standard of Communication between Deaf and Hearing People, by Stewart Simpson (Edinburgh: Scottish Workshop Publications, 2007, 253 pp., £13.50). Paperback, ISBN 9-781873-577455. George Montgomery THIS BOOK GIVES an account of events concerning the formation and development of the Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People in the United Kingdom, which established the sign language interpreters' register the system of Deaf examiners and also promulgated regular standards of qualification in British Sign Language (BSL). At first blush, the blow-by-blow account of the administrative details of fund-raising, advocacy, and organization of yet another Deaf charity would not promise a gripping read to anyone other than the worthy archivist intent on preserving the dry facts for posterity. This first impression would be misleading. As the chapters titled Fighting to Survive and The Road to Recovery suggest, this is a moving personal account that draws the reader into the true story by its realism rather than by artificial literary skills and stratagems. Unlike the United States, which had established a register of ASL interpreters that was widely accepted, the United Kingdom had a network of social workers for Deaf people (SWDs) who practiced interpretation as one of their professional skills. From the beginning, some opposition to the idea of a separate register arose from those SWDs who felt their status was threatened and were averse to the prospect of being examined by Deaf examiners. In a very small minority of cases these fears were justified, when some of the first inexperienced examiners used their unaccustomed power to gain revenge on teachers and social workers they resented due to past differences. Much of the early groundwork was done by Willard Madsen of Gallaudet University, who was invited by the British Deaf Association to spend an extended sabbatical working as a consultant to help to establish a register and appropriate examinations. Madsen brought a number of examples of curricula, examinations, and videos, along with his vast expertise and experience. Rapidly adapting to the British Deaf scene, he gave the project a flying start and learned BSL in the process. As every first-year student of social anthropology knows, attempts to transplant systems across cultures can be beset by unforeseen incompatibilities. distinguished Australian social worker and interpreter John Flynn pointed out that Madsen's model needed time and modification to adapt comfortably into the British Deaf environment. When, after World War II, the British Dental Association introduced new scientific professional standards for dentists, the older experienced dentists who had qualified by less exacting apprenticeship methods were allowed to continue to practice, but new dentists were held to the new standards. In time the older generation died out, and today the new university dental education and strictly monitored examinations are demanded of all. …