This is a beautifully presented hardback reference textbook of approximately 830 glossy pages. It covers a comprehensive range of maxillofacial topics, many of which will be familiar to otolaryngologists. The 11 chapters cover diagnostics, oral surgery, surgical techniques, malignancy, salivary gland and thyroid surgery, vascular lesions, trauma, the temporomandibular joint, cleft lip and palate, craniofacial surgery, and facial aesthetics.

A wide range of contributors from around the world have participated, but most are from the UK and almost all are maxillofacial surgeons.

The layout is of high quality and the illustrations are similarly excellent, with a mixture of colour photos and clear line drawings. Indeed, it is almost identical in format to the current Scott-Brown (from the same publisher).

A particularly nice touch is the ‘top tips’ box at the end of each section, which acts as a practical summary of the preceding section (similar to the ‘key topics’ boxes in Scott-Brown).

This is primarily an operative textbook, and fulfils this purpose very well throughout all the chapters, while also including sufficient pre- and post-operative information. It is curiously reassuring to read about how another specialty does a neck dissection or parotidectomy, and find very little difference! However, rhinologists might pause for breath before reading about nasal surgery and aesthetics, in a maxillofacial book. Rest assured these sections are well written and familiar to us in ENT. I suppose it is a sign of the times, and of the large amount of overlap between our specialties. Even the description of nasal packing is correct!

Overall, I think this book would complement the library of any ENT surgeon, particularly head and neck surgeons. It is not cheap (even at £240 on Amazon), but then this is a high quality, up-to-date operative textbook, of which there are not too many out there.