This book, by a distinguished commercial practitioner, now a judge, is not for beginners. It is primarily for those with business in the Commercial Court. It does not cover topics which are not particularly associated with the jurisdiction of that court (p. 59). It contains a great deal of practical detail, even down to the telephone numbers of certain court offices; it provides numerous precedents of forms; and it copies, in three Appendices, Practice Directions and Statements of commercial judges, the Guide to Commercial Practice and R.S.C., Ords. 72 and 73.

The book presupposes familiarity on the part of its readers not only with English civil procedure in general but also with a good deal of commercial law and practice. The major part of the book—the chapters on the commencement of proceedings and pleadings, on interlocutory procedure, on trials, on proceedings arising out of arbitrations, and, of course, the Appendices—are all specific to the Commercial Court. They take the theme of “ordinary” Queen’s Bench procedure, of which Commercial Court procedure is essentially a variation, more or less for granted. The first chapter, on the “Origin and Development of the Commercial Court” and Chapter 6, on Mareva injunctions, even, perhaps, Chapter 2 on the Commercial Court Committee and Chapter 3, “What is a Commercial case?”, on the other hand, are of wider interest and demand less of the reader by way of prior knowledge. Though each of these chapters has its proper place in the book, they are almost free-standing essays on their particular subjects which can be read with profit by the non-specialist.