Practical skills in any subject are best learnt by apprenticeship, wherein the less experienced student learns from a more experienced teacher. This is especially important in psychiatry where the practical skills of assessment, formulation and management require a teacher to have wide experience to be able to teach their students the nuances of assessing psychiatric patients where no two patients present the same way. The challenge for the editors was to provide a simple and structured guide to practical skills in the assessment and management of patients in psychiatry, while also covering the wide variations in, and associated challenges of, psychiatric presentations.

The eleven chapters cover four main themes: interviews and assessment, mental state examination, formulation/summary and management. Practical guidance is included for interviewing children, adults and elderly and neuropsychiatric assessment. Also covered are different interview situations including wards, outpatients and emergency departments. The areas that new trainees find difficult during assessment (i.e. personality, sexual abuse, family relationships) are covered in adequate detail.

The chapters on mental state examination and formulation/summary are brief, yet cover the necessary subject matter. Management covers early treatment interventions and when to refer to experts. The treatment plans provided for different disorders are to the point and in-line with current guidelines. The wide variety of conditions for which information on when to refer is provided should prove a useful resource for trainees.

Deserving a special mention is the chapter on special interview situations. The wealth of experience of the editors is most evident here, where guidance on many a difficult situation that trainees face daily has been provided in one place. The section on special problems covers a range of disorders/situations requiring different approaches. The final chapter provides information on legal and service organisation issues. The appendices contain information that will be useful on a daily basis to a trainee in psychiatry.

The breadth and richness of the editors' clinical and teaching experience has been distilled into a succinct yet erudite handbook of practical psychiatry. It is a refreshing change that, despite being a handbook, it does not just contain endless lists. The narrative style is simple, yet authoritative. In fact, reading the book transported me back to when I was inducted into psychiatry and one of my favourite professors would say, ‘This is the way it is done…’, which is one of the strengths of this book.

This is a must read for trainees new to psychiatry and an interesting one for medical students during their placements in psychiatry.