Respiratory medicine is a broadbased specialty that incorporates traditional pulmonary diseases such as infection, airway diseases and cancer in addition to wider aspects such as critical care and sleep disorders. Thus, it may be difficult for the general respiratory specialist to keep up to date with the latest developments across this broad range of diseases and disorders. While there are many textbooks on different aspects of respiratory medicine, there are relatively few that cover the full spectrum of the specialty, and particularly few that have been written by leading experts in all aspects of the discipline.