Reviewed by Dr Harry Brown

Alastair Denniston and Philip Murray

3rd Edition Published 2014

ISBN 978-0-19-967998-0

Price £34.99

http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199679980.do

The Oxford handbook series are well known and a highly respected collection of medical textbooks and they continue to grow and become updated. This particular book is now in its 3rd edition and now updated, it is an impressive production. The first thing that struck me was its size, or more specifically it’s thickness. It is much thicker than the standard Oxford handbooks such as the well known Clinical Medicine and as such, is certainly quite detailed.

It is aimed squarely at specialist trainees (it says so in the cover as it follows the training curriculum of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists) and I would suspect a great help for more established specialists as well. There is a lot of depth of detail and coverage and despite its thickness (which I think is a positive attribute) it is still very portable and can easily be carried in a case or take up a small amount of space in a desk. As always, like the rest of the series, these books are well designed for heavy and regular use and wear well with the durable vinyl cover.

I have made comments about the thickness, there are 1069 pages and that reflects a very detailed and in depth coverage and I would even go as far as saying this is a portable, general ophthalmological text. There is good broad general coverage and though the book is mainly text driven that is no bad thing, after all it is a reference source. Special mention should be made of the excellent web resources for ophthalmologists at the end, which is most useful.

This book is also ideal for GPs and GP registrars and though it may be more detailed than required; it would represent a one stop reference source. I would think it unlikely they would need anything else. I also found it interesting to dip in and read subject areas that I would not have normally come across. Best of all, is the relatively modest price to purchase this book. I think this represents excellent value for money for getting a book which is up-to-date (at the time of writing this review) and is quite in depth.

Dr Harry Brown

December 2014