One of five slim option titles for OCR specification A, the others being telecommunications, health physics, cosmology and materials.

It is nicely organised and presented with plenty of colour and diagrams, especially helpful when dealing with abstract content such as in the “making sense of hadrons” chapter. Each of the eight chapters has a useful summary. Questions to test understanding are dotted throughout and there are also a few at the end of each chapter. Answers are provided. With some texts, the “bite-sized” approach can grate, but not with this little book, which should give students the feeling they are at the cutting edge.