I'll be honest: I turned to Wikipedia to even understand the title, and expected the content to be of little interest to me as an otologist! From the Greek, pedagogy literally means ‘lead the child’ but is defined as the ‘holistic science of education’, here applied to the opposite extreme of life. The introduction reminds us that we are all facing progressively longer life expectancy. We need something to keep the grey cells working once the hospital car park permit is finally surrendered, and singing is a great pleasure for many.

This is obviously a highly specialised work but its topic is novel and well chosen. How many of us do see the ageing churchgoer whose contribution to evensong is weakening, and just dismiss them after a normal fibre-optic laryngoscopy? With our speech and language therapists swamped, is it reasonable to ask them to tackle what seems trivial if not inevitable? This book at least shows what can be achieved in ‘best practice’ and I found it excellent reading, mainly for being a topic of which I know little, frankly.

Few have contributed as much to the ENT literature as Bob Sataloff and, latterly, his published work has concentrated on the professional voice. This textbook is, as the title suggests, ‘different’ and is an invaluable manual for the laryngologist or therapist who might overlook this field of practice. The final sentence of the book summarises it well. ‘By establishing good singing habits, remaining physically fit and setting reasonable goals, singers can stay in the game for many decades’.