Those of us who have used Rob Baggott's text with our students will welcome this new edition with pleasure and a certain amount of relief. Where else could we get a book which combines a sound outline of policy developments and institutions with a lively appreciation of political issues and contexts? It's added topicality preserves its preeminent position as the ideal text for undergraduate students. In my experience it appeals to professional students such as nurses and occupational therapists as much as specialist social science students. It can be read straight through for a broad and relaible picture of the world of health politics or it can be selectively used. The sections provide good introductions to topic areas and lead the student into appropriate further reading. The updating of material, as the new bibliography indicates, has been done with great care and has involved a great deal of effort, yet he new material has been added into the text in a seamless way so that the arguments are never overwhelmed. Even professional students of health politics will find the book useful in filling in areas of ignorance. Similarly the general reader, interested in health policy, will find no more reliable and readable introduction. If students will buy only one text this should be the one.