During the past decade there has been a burgeoning of interest in arthritis and related rheumatic diseases. The spe ciality of rheumatology, once regarded as a Cinderella speciality, is now one of the leading specialties in internal medicine. Indeed, just as infant mortality is a good index of the general health of a community, so a University Med ical School can be similarly judged by the quality of its Department of Rheumatology. Perhaps no other specialty has helped to advance knowledge in medicine as has rheu matology One might have thought that little could be added to the clinical and radiologic description of one of the most studied diseases in rheumatology~rheumatoid arthritis. There are several excellent large radiology textbooks on bones and joints, and it is surprising that yet another book has been published. However, the reader will soon appreciate on reading this superb radiologic text on rheumatoid arthritis that here is something new and quite different from what has been published in the past. The combination of clinician and radiologist has produced a textbook which will become a standard reference on the subject. The authors are both well known in their respective fields and they have concentrated on the early changes in the disease-not only those in the articular surfaces but also those in the soft tissues. In 1948 the late Dr Philip Ellman coined the term rheumatoid disease, to indicate the systemic nature of rheumatoid arthritis.