Book excerpt: The Oxford Textbooks have found their way onto the shelves of clinics, libraries, and hospital departments the world over. They have earned praise for their careful integration of basic science and the best of clinical practice, their international focus, and not least their exhaustive coverage. Spring 2000 saw an exciting new development - the publication of our new, eagerly-awaited one-volume textbook of medicine based on the Oxford Textbook of Medicine. The Concise Oxford Textbookof Medicine retains all the authority of its parent text, while providing more concise and accessible information on how to manage every condition that a physician is likely to have to diagnose and treat. Starting with the content of the Oxford Textbook of Medicine, two of the original editors have selected the most essential and practical content, and reorganized and restructured it for ease of use. The authors of the original Oxford Textbook of Medicine articles have updated and rewritten their work to make it more practically focused, and many new chapters have been commissioned, while up-to-date references and many new illustrations have been added throughout. Every chapter of the Concise Oxford Textbook of Medicine has been painstakingly edited by Professors Ledingham and Warrell - two of the editors of the Oxford Textbook of Medicine - to eliminate repetition and achieve complete consistency and clarity. No other one-volume textbook of medicine is as international, readable, or accessible, and none has the balance and perspective of the Concise Oxford Textbook of Medicine.