"The Human Body Made Simple is designed for the reader who has no background in physiology/anatomy/pathophysiology and sets out to present the basics of these disciplines in a readily accessible way. Overall, the text achieves these aims. The text is clearly laid out and the style chatty and friendly – a long way from the jargon dense and sometimes encyclopedic presentation of other texts. Perhaps an indication of whether or not the text meets these aims is the fact that my mother, who has no background in science, picked up the text from my coffee table, proceeded to read a few chapters and then noted how easy it was to understand the material. The initial chapter ‘set the scene’ while chapter 2 gives a brief overview of medical terminology; a very useful inclusion. Each body system is then presented as a pair of chapters, the first describing the fundamental anatomy and physiology and the second looking at some common disease states involving that system. For example, diseases of the cardiovascular system include ischaemic heart disease, congestive heart failure, hypertension, oedema and anaemia. This is a very accessible approach and it is immediately obvious to the reader how each body system functions and how the basic function relates to disease processes. To this end the author’s objective of stressing the principles behind various physiological processes is met. My only issue with the structure of the text is the order in which the body systems are presented. The nervous and endocrine systems, undoubtedly the major control systems, are in the middle of the sequence of chapters after the cardiovascular, digestive and locomotor systems. It may have been more logical to cover the control systems first and then the other systems – however this was not a major distraction. Other slightly odd chapter presentations are having and the cardiovascular chapters and that covering the immune system, chapters normally presented together, at either end of the chapter list (Chapters 3 and 18). Similarly ‘Sight and Hearing’ is separated from the nervous system. While lacking the high colour glossy diagrams and figures present in other texts the diagrams in The Human Body Made Simple are relevant and clear and largely free of factual errors, although the use of monochrome (in blue) figures does detract a little from the overall quality. The book jacket claim that these are ‘accurate, eye-catching illustration’ is, however, somewhat of an exaggeration. Some electron micrographs and X-rays are also included to further illustrate the text. My only real criticism of the text is the disturbing number of incorrect and mislead statements; perhaps a result of attempts to over-simplify the content. For example when discussing directional terms cranial, superior and rostral are presented as equivalent and interchangeable. Other minor irritations are the use of the term ‘womb’ when referring to the uterus and the inappropriate use of the term ‘gender’ for sex. Overall these are fairly minor problems but would, I feel, limit the usefulness of this text. This text also fell victim to my pet hate – the inappropriate use of capitals when naming biological structures. This is a common and, for students, misleading grammatical error, eg “ .. (the singular is Mitochondrion)…” (p4). This was not done consistently throughout the book and should have been corrected during proofing (especially as this is the second edition of the book). Like most texts covering the function of the human body social and ethical issues are mentioned in passing in some chapters, were appropriate, but are not covered in depth. Would I recommend this book – my answer is a qualified ‘yes’. This book would find most use for members of the lay public wanting an introduction to human physiology or to common diseases. In this context it would be a useful text for practitioners to recommend to their clients. The text is certainly accessible and not weighed down by ‘scientific jargon’. However, the number of errors and misleading statements, although often relatively minor in nature, would prevent me from agreeing with the author that this is a text suitable for students of complementary and alternative therapies or radiography, even as a foundation text. As a lecturer in the area of human physiology to allied health students I would probably refer these students to one of the other numerous human anatomy and physiology texts. Overall the author has achieved their aim of making the human body simple, but perhaps a little too simple for the target audience. "