Sparse is the go

I have never been one for big books. At medical school we were told to buy big complex textbooks and I could never see the trunk for the leaves, to paraphrase the old saying. It was only when I started to buy little books such as ‘Clinical neuroanatomy made ridiculously simple ‘or’ The ABC of Physiology’, and later on, ‘Anaesthesia for the uninterested’ that I started to make progress. A kindly and wise Professor told me, ‘you have to understand the trunk and roots first, before you begin to look at the branches.’

This book, for me, is one of those magic ones that somehow manages, with periodic dollops