John K Pearson (pp 225, £34.00) 2001. Hitchin, UK: American Technical Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0-7680-0236-2

• J K Pearson
• Improving Air Quality: Progress and Challenges for the Auto Industry

This book is unusual in the air pollution literature on two counts. Firstly, its author was a practising scientist in industry, so we get a refreshingly different slant on the issues. Secondly, while the book is heavily science based, it tackles head on that difficult area where science and policy meet or, more often, collide. Pearson does not shirk from pointing out the difficulties with the science, but also the difficult choices for policy. But this is done in a constructive and positive way—it would have been very easy for someone …