The book is a one volume core revision text covering general surgery and the minor surgical specialities, designed to stimulate the student into assessing his/her own knowledge during self-directed learning and exam preparation. The book assumes the student has had some teaching in surgery and has acquired some basic core knowledge. The book should promote self-directed learning with motivation coming from self-identification of strengths and weaknesses leading to an assessment of needs. This is a volume in the Churchill's Mastery of Medicine series - a major new series for medical students. For the above average student this text will be a valuable learning and review book going alongside the major textbooks. For the less able it will be ideal as the sole book to define the essential core of the subject and to ensure that it is understood, by use of the self-assessment material.