Psychiatry in Practice: Education, Experience, and Expertise Edited by Andrea Fiorillo, Umberto Volpe and Dinesh Bhugra. Oxford University Press. 2016. £39.99 (pb). 544 pp. ISBN 9780198723646

Ancient cartographers used to fill in the gaps in their maps with the phrase ‘Here be Dragons’ and I know from talking to colleagues that we shared similar feelings of trepidation whenever we were pushed away from the clinical work in which as trainees we had become well versed (assessing, diagnosing, treating etc) into the ‘terra incognito’ of the many non-clinical aspects of our profession that we faced as consultant psychiatrists.

Thus, the editors of this text have very astutely spotted a large gap in the market for a book that is principally aimed at helping early career psychiatrists navigate these unexplored domains. To accomplish this, they commissioned the talents of primarily early career psychiatrists themselves (though with oversight from more senior colleagues) to produce this book (a digital version is available), which is accredited to 93 mainly European psychiatrists.

This book is packed with information, which is of a consistently good quality and which is presented in a non-didactical manner. There are interesting chapters on important but underrepresented topics such as the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and migrants.

However, it is also written in a very wordy, largely unengaging and leaden style. It is also visually very dense with large deadening paragraphs aplenty. Sometimes less is more. From an editorial point of view the book is sprawling, with no obvious internal schema. It barely touches upon a number of very relevant topics (teaching, audit, the aftermath of serious incidents, private practice) while also containing a number of chapters (several on prescribing in particular) probably best suited to more orthodox clinical textbooks.

These issues notwithstanding, I would still wholeheartedly recommend this collection. It will prove invaluable as a detailed map to allow the early career psychiatrist to avoid the many pitfalls that lie in wait for them. I strongly feel that with some editorial polishing this rough diamond of a book could become an indispensable text, as essential over a career as our gold standard Maudsley prescribing handbook.