In an age in which the former elegance of scientific writing has given way to ill formed prose, check lists, and dreary tomes, this book is a welcome change. It is well written and cleverly structured, with a comprehensive index to guide one to the needed section in a hurry. These advantages will be appreciated by the target readership of junior hospital doctors and medical students; and also by hard pressed microbiologists, consultants in communicable disease control, and infection control nurses. It meets the demands of integrated training and clinical application, now an essential approach in the field of infection: I suspect that more senior practitioners will also place this volume in a readily …