Paediatrics and medical education have changed radically over the last 40 years. When I was a medical student in the early 1970s the student was expected to have a wide knowledge of every specialty including rare and abstruse conditions. Times have changed and now we expect students to know the basics of the subject and to be able to know how to obtain more information if required. Now the newly qualified doctor is a mere beginner in the process of assessing, diagnosing, and treating patients and receives progressive training in his or her own area of interest over years before they are experienced enough to be appointed to a specialist post. Medical education has changed to match the recalibration of what the student is required to know and paediatrics has led the way in this respect. The latest edition of Paediatrics and Child Health reflects the core knowledge that is required by a British medical student at the end of their paediatric rotation.

When I was a student we mostly used the textbook written by Hugh Jolly Diseases of Children. This was first published in 1964 and it rapidly became a core text for medical students studying paediatrics. When I undertook my paediatric rotation at medical school in 1972, the book was in its second edition and when I did my first house position post in paediatrics at Charing Cross hospital, London where Hugh was a consultant it was in its third edition. Paediatrics was changing considerably, particularly in respect to advances in neonatal medicine and the introduction of more modern investigation techniques. Hugh asked me to assist him in updating the fourth edition and kindly added me as a co‐author on the fifth edition published in 1985 when I was a newly appointed consultant paediatrician.

Hugh sadly died in 1986 and knowing that he was dying had asked me to continue his book, and in 1990 I published as editor the sixth edition of the renamed Jolly’s Diseases of Children with the assistance of a number of colleagues. At that time undergraduate education in paediatrics was changing enormously; students were spending less time on children’s wards and many children were being seen by doctors based in the community, an area previously relatively neglected in textbooks.

I had the great pleasure of working in Leeds at that time with Mary Rudolf who had been appointed as a community paediatrician and we decided to produce a totally new undergraduate textbook on the basics of paediatrics including the way that children presented to doctors both in primary care and at hospital. In particular, a section on the adolescent was added. This book was entitled Paediatrics and Child Health and was published in 1999. It grew from Hugh Jolly’s vision of holistic child health and understanding how children reacted to their environment, but took a modern approach to the way that paediatrics has evolved in the modern medical undergraduate curriculum. The second edition was published in 2006 and Dr Tim Lee joined us in collaboration with the third edition in 2011. Although I am no longer involved in writing, this fourth edition continues Hugh’s legacy of showing how health and disease in children are closely related and is an up‐to‐date book for undergraduates to learn from.

He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all.

William Osler

In the preface to the third edition of this book, Benjamin Disraeli was cited as saying that one ‘cannot learn men from books’. William Osler, one of the fathers of modern Medicine, endorses this view but balances it with the notion that books provide the charts needed for the navigation of the stormy seas of suffering and disease. Even though more than a century has passed since these words were written, the truth behind them was never so compulsively true as now. Witness the increasing flow of quality publications in every sphere of Medicine, not least in Paediatrics.

Since the last edition of this book was published, advances in the understanding of human biology and medical practice have accelerated at a dizzying pace along with society and people's expectations. Today's patients are increasingly informed by instant on‐line communication and information, and technology is transforming the practice of Medicine and its management. These developments and more, constitute huge challenges for the traditional doctor–patient relationship and the bioethical environment in which it exists, and from which it derives its acceptance in society and its professional legitimacy. These challenges have to be met by equally fundamental, and responsible, changes in the way that Medicine is taught and learnt. In this new and revised edition, we have tried to reflect these seismic shifts in a manner that presents to the student a clear, comprehensive and up‐to‐date reflection of contemporary Paediatrics.

Chapters have been revised and extensively re‐written to ensure that the latest information about diagnosis, investigation and management is discussed. New chapters have been added on communication and prescribing, together with a new introduction. New additions include reference to national guidelines and flow charts and diagrams. The recent emphasis on outcome‐based education has been reflected through clear highlighting of the key competences expected of students. Scientific aspects that strengthen the book include new imaging techniques, genetics and epigenetics, environmental medicine, aspects of emergency paediatrics, paediatric pharmacology, toxicology and lifestyle paediatrics. The sections on student experience, learning and self‐assessment have been recast, through chapters on doing well in paediatrics and practice multiple‐choice questions.

The on‐line edition of the book is now an independent, although closely linked, entity. It continues to include the printed version as well as physical examination instruction videos, but now also provides new experiences: two ‘mock’ examinations are provided, which students can use to test their skills in taking a time‐limited challenge in the same way as their final examinations are given; and a complete set of interactive patient scenarios are presented, which provide readers with an on‐line simulation opportunity to work through real‐life clinical problems, with extensive feedback discussion provided at every point and for every choice. These both test clinical knowledge and judgement and also provide opportunities for curious and enquiring students to broaden their knowledge and deepen their reading into more detailed and specialised channels. We hope that students of every ability will find a fascination with paediatrics stimulated and their interest awakened. If we achieve this, then our purposes will have been fulfilled and this new edition of our book will take its place as a landmark in the education of students in paediatrics.

We acknowledge the considerable energy and time that Professor Malcolm Levene and Dr Tim Lee invested in writing the first three editions of this textbook. We are grateful to the following who have contributed significantly to chapters in the book: Dr Michael Harari, Professor Eric Shinwell, Dr Mervyn Jaswon and Kim Roberts, and Dr Micha De Vries for photographs for the cover. We are grateful too to the following who have contributed illustrations: Dr Elizabeth Morris, Dr Rosemary Arthur, Mr P.D. Bull, Dr Tony Burns, Professor Martin Curzon, Dr Mark Goodfield, Dr Phillip Holland, Mr Tim Milward, Dr P.R. Patel, Dr John Puntis, Mr Mark Stringer, Dr David Swirsky, Ms Clare Widdows, Dr Susan Wyatt, Dr Jane Wynne and Matteo Gray and his mother Tina Meharry.

We would like to thank the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and Harlow Printing for permission to reproduce their growth charts. We would like to thank the following: The extract of ‘Henry King who chewed string and was cut off in dreadful Agonies’ from Cautionary Verses by Hilaire Belloc (Copyright © The Estate of Hilaire Belloc 1930) is reproduced by permission of PFD (www.pfd.co.uk) on behalf of the Estate of Hilaire Belloc. Extract of ‘Rebecca who slammed doors for fun, and perished miserably’ from Cautionary Verses by Hilaire Belloc (Copyright © The Estate of Hilaire Belloc) is reproduced by permission of PFD (www.pfd.co.uk) on behalf of the Estate of Hilaire Belloc. Extract from ‘Now We Are Six’ © A.A. Milne. Published by Egmont UK Limited, London and used with permission. Published by Dutton’s Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, and used with permission. All rights reserved. Extract from When We Were Very Young © A.A. Milne. Published by Egmont UK Limited, London and used with permission. Published by Dutton’s Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, and used with permission. Quote from Janusz Korczak Permission from Sandra Joseph https://www.korczak.org.uk/contact.html. All rights reserved.