The first edition of this handbook was well received and sold many copies.

We were told by a number of specialist registrars in training and consult-
ants that it was essential to have it in outpatients. We hope that the same

will be true of the second edition.
Endocrinology remains the most exciting of specialties—enormously
varied in presentation and management and with the ability to affect hugely
and beneficially the quality of life over a long period of time. Our aims with
this second edition remain the same, mainly to have a pocket handbook
which can be easily transported in which all the pieces of information one
so often needs are there as a reminder. We hope it will enable trainees
to enhance their knowledge but also the older and so-called ‘trained’ will
continue to have recourse to its pages when memory lapses occur. We
regard it too as a companion to the Oxford Textbook of Endocrinology and
Diabetes.