4^th edition Published 2015

Melissa Scholes and Vijay Ramakrishnan

Published by Elsevier

ISBN 978-0-323-29856-8

Price £32.99

http://www.elsevierhealth.co.uk/secrets/ent-secrets-paperback/9780323298568/

I have not had the pleasure of reviewing many ENT books and I must say this book is a pleasure to both read and review. It is of a modest size comprising 576 pages including the index and is roughly the size of a standard paperback novel and yet it is packed with facts, knowledge and wisdom in an accessible and user friendly format.

The book kicks off with 100 examination pearls which is a simple list of useful and interesting facts and should stimulate the reader’s appetite to read on. On the front cover, there is a clue, to the format of the book “questions you will be asked”. In fact each chapter contains a large number of questions, each followed by a paragraph or so of explanatory text. It makes reading and understanding the material much easier and avoids the typical textbook of approach of defining a problem and discussing it’s cause, features and management etc. Of course this atypical approach does not suit everyone and some people may prefer the more traditional textbook approach and there is nothing wrong with that. However I think this particular method works well for this specific book.

This style of explaining the subject matter of ENT in this question and answer format means that it is (as far as I am concerned) user friendly and very easy to read around a topic. Even better, just opening up the book and reading a couple of pages allows the reader to be painlessly educated and better informed. The book is well produced employing a clever use of colour and a fair sprinkling of diagrams and tables. Even better despite its relatively modest size, it packs in an impressive degree of depth of knowledge. Although the format is innovative and modern, it is also an impressively scholarly work.  There is an impressive array of contributors in this primarily American sourced book.

I think the book represents good value for value for money and in fact is part of the publisher’s impressive ExpertConsult.com offering. So there is a web version which is similar to others in the publisher’s stable. Usually there is also an app version as well but for some reason, this was not available for this title.

This is a very good all round ENT book which is an ideal and detailed text for the undergraduate but I am sure primary care staff and ENT specialists would also be interested in this most useful addition to the ENT literature.

Dr Harry Brown

November 2015