There are a number of important facets to consider when sitting down to write or commission an academic text. I would have thought that high on this list would be who is going to write on the various subjects, who is going to read it, and what ‘angle’ the authors are going to use to make their book better than the other 200 or so on the same subject.
On reviewing this book, I am happy to say that the surgeons involved are top drawer. The lead author is a well established facial plastic surgeon from Connecticut and has, unsurprisingly, drawn together a terrific panel of writers, including the likes of Cook, Wang and Larrabee (based in Oregon and Seattle, respectively) and Keller, Hamilton and Sykes (in the West). With this in mind, the academic content cannot be questioned.
The book will have a broad-based appeal to both registrars and consultants alike, as it is well written and wonderfully illustrated. The colour photos in particular are of tremendous quality and are, in some instances, explained not by text but by a simple, traced drawing of the same picture, which I feel is a neat little trick. Predictably, as mentioned above, the written content is sensible and well researched, giving the reader insights and little vignettes to take away. Sometimes there could be a little less bulk to the writing, as the ‘wood is occasionally lost in the trees’. The addition of a ‘take home message’ in the form of bullet points at the end of each section would reinforce what had been read.
The ‘angle’ is where this publication falls down a little. The book is up-to-date, didactic and beautifully illustrated; however, the problem is that, although I think this is a well balanced book that would grace any library, it is competing with many others, most of which are also up-to-date, didactic and beautifully illustrated. There is, obviously, a slightly different flavour here, as there are different pictures and diagrams and the book is up to date – Dr Truswell should be applauded for this – but it is just not hugely memorable.
It is a sad fact of life that, in a few months' time, someone else will come along with a newer, shinier model that has a whole raft of different, ‘beautiful’ pictures and illustrations. It won't necessarily be better or worse, just newer.
