Frankel's Field Guide to Clinical Dermatology is a convenient pocket-sized daily working manual for the recognition and treatment of the most commonly encountered dermatological conditions in the clinic, at the bedside, and in examinations. As such it is particularly suitable for medical undergraduate students and health care specialists. The text is written in a concise and user-friendly manner and is clearly integrated with abundant high quality colour clinical photographs. The contents are presented in a unique and informal format, which reflect the author's desire to provide readers with better accessibility to the facts and facilitate greater ease in the identification and interpretation of various skin lesions. For example, rashes are described under the easy to understand headings "rashes that itch a lot", "red rashes on the face", "red rashes (not on face)" and "scaling rashes". Other areas covered in a similar fashion include blisters, bumps, spots, leg ulcers, nails and folds, hair loss and procedures and supplies. Perhaps one of the best features of this text is the inclusion of a useful section on differential diagnosis and how to make the diagnosis for each dermatological disorder-necessary and helpful information for the uninitiated or inexperienced eye. With the emphasis throughout on simplicity and accessibility, there is less focus on pathogenesis and aetiology. However, this field guide is not essentially a picture book. Indeed, the author provides more than sufficient detail on symptoms and signs, treatment options and prognostic information to compensate for less direct mechanistic content. Overall, Frankel's Field Guide to Clinical Dermatology is an invaluable quick-reference/revision dermatological text which successfully combines qualities of a very good diagnostic atlas with its incorporation of numerous colour illustrations as well as also providing all the essential details on the common or classical skin disorders.