The first edition of this work appeared in 1987. In the Preface to that edition, Dr Derham explained that most of the chapters had originated in a Cambridge Ph.D. thesis which he had successfully submitted. The first edition consisted of 346 pages. The second edition is nearly twice the length. Since Derham’s first edition, two other books on set-off have appeared. First, Philip Wood has published his monumental English and International Set-off (London, 1989) and Dr Sheelagh McCracken followed in 1993 with her The Banker’s Remedy of Set-off (which Richard Hooley politely suggested might be retitled as a more general study of set-off: [1994] C.L.J. 404, 406). It can be fairly said, therefore, that both the general litigation lawyer and the commercial or