There is a chauvinism in all of us which suggests that the best textbooks must come from Europe or North America, most of them with a blue over silver cover. In reality, the Indian sub-continent is prolific in its publications on otolaryngology. However, as Indian publishers attempt to keep down costs, readers have become used to books printed on poor quality paper that all too often disintegrates in their hands. This book is certainly an exception. It is a high quality, hardback publication filled with excellent illustrations, and is amazing value for money.

The current publication is the fourth edition of a book that first appeared in 1990. The second edition was reviewed by Dr Susan Snashall in J Laryngol Otol and, as a result, achieved world-wide recognition.

Approximately two-thirds of the book deals with audiological testing. I think the book is actually at its best when discussing the simplest, routine methods, such as pure tone audiometry, impedance audiometry and ABR testing. In India, one still reads about the alternate binaural loudness balance test and the SISI, the sort of thing my generation was brought up on in the late ‘70s. This reviewer has encountered current trainees with no understanding of such audiological phenomena as recruitment or tone decay, as all such testing has become largely obsolete, alas.

There is a good chapter on assessing the deaf child, and a particularly good one, at the very end, on genetic testing in patients with deafness. There is a family tree here demonstrating autosomal dominant inheritance, in which I suspected something had gone wrong with the labelling. An e-mail to the author confirmed this, and told a great tale of his mortification and attempt to correct the error before printing. If you spot it, then you have learnt the message he is teaching, however! It seems to be the sole error that has crept into this text.

There is briefer coverage of vestibular investigation. This section is particularly well illustrated, even if many figures comprise what is termed a ‘butterfly chart’. These may well be familiar to many, but they baffled this reviewer! Newer techniques, such as vestibular evoked myogenic potentials, are covered in detail; however, for once, we are mercifully spared the sometimes dubious pictures of superior canal dehiscence which all authors seem obliged to reproduce.

Any UK trainee approaching the final exam who had learned even a fraction of what is taught in this book would have a far sounder knowledge of audiology and vestibulometry than is actually required. This book is far better than a US textbook on a similar topic from an internationally renowned publisher (which I have also reviewed this afternoon), and it is far, far cheaper. I was highly impressed.