Many medical students like to have a comprehensive textbook of clinical medicine to work from at home and a concise account of the subject to carry around with them and refer to as a crib. It is useful if these two books reflect one another. This pocket text forms a complement to Kumar & Clark's textbook, being a distillation of the core information presented in the third edition. Students should find it useful as an introduction to clinical medicine, as a companion to their studies of internal medicine, and for revision.