I'm a big fan of OUP's Very Short Introductions series. At their best they can outline a complex subject so well that the reader is left wondering how on earth the author was able to cram so much information into such a short text and still leave it thoroughly readable. They leave the author armed with a working knowledge of the fundamentals of a subject and equipped for further study, should they wish to do so.

Some books in the series, however, simply serve to exhibit the weaknesses of the format - reminding us of our initial wonder at how such short books could possibly fulfil the elucidatory aims of the publishers. This is one of those.

David Hand uses this book to explain the what and the why of statistics and scratches the surface of some of the more common hows. I can't think why anyone would pick this book up in the first place if they didn't already have an idea of the first two, so the lack of detailed statistical methods, although understandable in the context of a small book, leads me to wonder what the purpose of it is.