Judah Philip Benjamin was born in 1811 and called to the New Orleans Bar in 1832, where his professional success began with a law treatise. Becoming a United States Senator, Benjamin backed the wrong side in the Civil War, escaped to England and was called to the English Bar in 1866. Once more, his professional success began with publication of a treatise, Contract of Sale (1868). He died in 1884, but the work continued under a succession of editors, culminating in the eighth edition in 1950 by Mr Justice Finnemore, who decided that “no more changes than necessary should be made, so as to retain as much as possible of the original book”.

In truth, we may suspect that by 1950 little of the original Benjamin text which remained unamended was obscured by later developments, the whole bound together in an increasingly archaic format. Accordingly, Professor Guest decided “to produce an entirely new work”, with the now familiar modern title, ably supported in the new-style 1st edition (1974) by six specialist editors. While there has been some changes in the editorial team for subsequent editions (now seven strong), the continued coherence of the impressive whole is such as to suggest another change of title to Benjamin & Guest.

In the Preface to the new-style 1st Edition, Professor Guest pointed out that nearly half the book (Parts 7 and 8) were devoted to overseas sales and noted that when the book was in page proof Parliament enacted the Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973 (dealing with domestic sales), which required much re-writing. As one reviewer noted, “the strain resulting from attempting to treat the increasingly divergent topics of consumer sales and commercial transactions within one volume is becoming apparent” (Hudson (1975) 91 L.Q.R. 447. See also Powles (1975) 38 M.L.R. 231, 234; Thornely [1976] C.L.J. 181). In view of the provenance of the book and the late turn towards domestic sales spurred by the 1973 Act, it is perhaps not surprising that another reviewer (Borrie (1975) 13 J.S.P.T.L. 372) found “but