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The 18 chapters of this book are each authored by the highest calibre of painspecialising practitioners, predominantly from Australia and the USA. Some of these authors I am pleased to acknowledge I know personally (which I offer as my only conflict of interest statement in providing this book review), while all are recognised from their body of published works. It is therefore gratifying to see this diverse collection of experts being brought together to provide us with a very well-written summary of pain, its impact and its management. Of the many pain resources available, they typically fit into a discrete category such as basic research, pain modelling, clinical pharmacology, physical therapy or cognitive therapy. This text is able to encompass this full gamut. The book begins with pain as an epidemiological problem, progressing to its biological causes and then on to the theories and evidence for pain emerging as a disease in its own right. At each stage, evidence-based guidance to the management of pain is provided in a way that is clear and clinically relevant. The editors have thus applied the basic principles of the bio-psycho-social model of pain management into the very structure of the text. The one minor downside to the editing is that, as one reads the book from cover to cover, there is some repetition encountered from each chapter to the next. The book will, however, no doubt be a useful reference for many, and each of the chapters stands alone as a scholarly article. This text should form part of the required reading for a large audience amongst the medical, nursing, psychological, and physiotherapy professions. From those at the beginning of their careers, to those preparing for most college fellowship-level examinations, this book will act as a valuable resource as we seek to reduce the suffering caused by pain. Within the anaesthetic community, the text would be a useful resource for those desiring to improve their perioperative pain management skills, and also covers much of the syllabus content for the