Book excerpt: Providing a comprehensive and evidence-based reference guide for those who have a strong and scholarly interest in medical education, the Oxford Textbook of Medical Education contains everything the medical educator needs to know in order to deliver the knowledge, skills, and behaviour that doctors need. The book explicitly states what constitutes best practice and gives an account of the evidence base that corroborates this. Describing the theoretical educational principles that lay the foundations of best practice in medical education, the book gives readers a through grounding in all aspects of this discipline. Contributors to this book come from a variety of different backgrounds, disciplines and continents, producing a book that is truly original and international.