McGregor on Damages needs little introduction. An integral part of the Common Law Library series, the book has now reached its 15th edition since it first appeared, as J. D. Mayne’s work, in 1856. The book remains the pre-eminent reference work on the subject of damages in contract and tort in spite of the arrival in recent years of a number of new works dealing with the subject of common law remedies. Possibly its most remarkable feature is that, in spite of the detailed discussion which it devotes to the damages measures applicable in a wide variety of areas, it remains the work of a single author.

The topic of damages has seen a great deal of changes since the appearance of the last edition in 1980. The subject of damages for personal injury and death, in particular, has continued to be elaborated by the courts and was subject to detailed amendment as a result of Part I of the Administration of Justice Act 1982. There can be no doubt that a new edition of McGregor was due.

In structure, the book remains unchanged from the previous edition: chapters on the general principles governing the award of damages are followed by detailed consideration of the rules applicable to particular forms of contract and torts. The book’s strength remains its comprehensive discussion of the relevant case law; its weakness, the fact that the author pays little attention to the work of other textbook writers and none at all to periodical literature on the subject. The practitioner who searches the pages of McGregor for assistance is directed wholly to reported case law.

The merits of a book of this kind will be well known to the potential readers. The question for the reviewer of the 15th edition to answer is how good a job of updating has been done. It is at this point that doubts begin to emerge. Although it is inevitable that a reviewer will find something in a book of this size to disagree with, a consideration in detail of particular sections raises the question whether the depth of research required to maintain its authoritative status is not now beyond the capacity of a single author. Some important recent decisions such as Bliss v. South East Thames R.H.A. [1987] I.C.R. 700 (C.A.) (non pecuniary loss and employment contracts), Hyde v. Tameside A.H.A. [1981] C.L.Y. 1854 (C.A.) (suicide) and Spiers v. Halliday [1984] C.L.Y. 1040 (use of the Government Actuary Department’s Tables) escape the author’s attention; and topics such as professional negligence are scattered between a number of chapters (indeed, there seems to be no discussion of the measure applied to breach of an architect’s design duties). The important arrival of “provisional” damages in personal injury cases is treated in so cursory a fashion as to be virtually useless to a reader.

There are also signs that the author’s views have become settled to the exclusion of recognition of modern trends. A particular example is the author’s continuing belief that awards