The first edition of Central Cambridge: A Guide to the University and Colleges appeared in 1994. Small-scale updates were made in successive reprints, but this second edition represents the first major overhaul of its content and layout.

The fully revised, updated and redesigned new edition contains freshly commissioned photographs, mainly from the Japanese artist and photographer Hiroshi Shimura; comprehensively updated text, with all facts and figures re-checked, supplemented and updated as appropriate; extensions of the individual college and University entries to incorporate new details and to take account of new buildings; fresh maps, adapted from the latest edition of the official University Map; a significantly extended glossary, further reading section and index; and a new Foreword by the Chancellor, H.R.H. The Prince Philip. Almost every entry in the book has received some update or addition, many of them substantial.

The first edition of the guidebook benefited from the input of numerous individuals including Marcus Askwith, Liesel Boughton-Fox, Christopher Brooke, Bill Davies, Ian Hart, Gordon Johnson, Elisabeth Leedham-Green, Roger Lovatt, Robin Matthews, David McKitterick, Simon Mitton, Jeremy Mynott, Harry Porter, Nicholas Ray, Geoffrey Skelsey, Frank Stubbings, Sarah Taylor, Malcolm Underwood, Robin Walker, Martin Walters, Max Walters and Tony Wilson. Some of the above helped again with this new edition: my thanks go to them, and to the representatives of individual colleges and other parts of the University who checked their revised entries, as well as to Marc Anderson, Rob Beddow, Stephen Bourne, Susan Bowring, Kate Brett, Andrew Brown, Gillian Dadd, Peter Davison, Richard Fisher, Peter Fox, Greg Hayman, Mark Hurn, Alastair Lynn, Alan McArthur, Caroline Murray, Jonathan Nicholls, Peter Raby, Liz Reeve and Stephanie Thelwell for comments and inspiration of various kinds.