Books about general practice are interesting. Books about general practice written by non-general practitioners (GPs) telling us how to do it are often quite fun. Books about general practice written by GPs are useful; books written about general practice by a practising GP are rare and valuable. This book falls into the latter category. What makes it more interesting still is that it covers a topic that is poorly covered by either the research literature or by other authors — the care of the severely mentally ill in primary care.

The book is clearly set out, describes the steps needed to undertake the various tasks, identifies why the tasks are important and what will be achieved by completing them. The descriptions throughout are simple, concise and designed with general practice in mind.

This is a book that is aimed (successfully) at primary care, but its attraction does not end there. It is of value to community mental health teams (CMHTs) in helping them understand some of the strengths and weaknesses of primary care, and what CMHTs can do to support primary care provide high quality care to a vulnerable population. It is of value to managers in primary care groups to help them provide direction to a mental health special interest group, always difficult if the managers themselves have no experience of commissioning or developing primary care mental health services. Overall it is a useful, well constructed book.

There is but one drawback — this review is published in a psychiatric journal, and not a primary care journal, which would raise the level of awareness significantly.