Emergency physicians are said to have a short attention span. Just in case this is true, I will give my conclusion at the start: this is an excellent book—go out and buy it.

This is the second edition of this book, albeit that the first edition had a different name and a different publisher. In the preface Professor Ellis says that he aims to present a succinct overview of surgery from prehistoric times to the present day. He succeeds admirably. At 274 pages, this is a relatively short, very readable book with illustrations on almost every page. It is not an academic text in that most of it is not referenced, but he recommends eight books for …