History
The Practical Handbook series was started in the 1970s, with most of the original titles remaining in print throughout, and new titles being added over the years. There has been a rolling programme of revision with most printed Handbooks now in their umpteenth edition. We welcome feedback at any time on all aspects of the Handbooks, whether the comments are general or detailed, practical or academic, complimentary or critical.
Online version
These online versions have been created (launched on 5th June 2017) using the most recent revision of each printed Handbook, complete with spelling mistakes and broken links!
Some pages will seem quite long. Others have little content. This is because we set out a convention for how the books were ‘translated’ from paper to online – we matched book chapters with online chapters, used major headings as web pages and sub-headings as, well, sub-heading on web pages. Where the printed handbook said something like “see p25”, we have linked to either the page or sub-heading as we saw relevant.
It is our intention to continue the process of improving and updating the Handbooks, with the obvious advantage that the online versions can be updated on a much more regular basis. We will update the content, illustrations and website links, as well as add photographs and videos as we create them. We will prioritise bringing information up to date, fixing broken links and getting our spellings correct.
Each online page of the Handbooks has a feedback form (only available when signed in) that subscribers can use to send us feedback and point out areas where the content needs to be updated or corrected.
Subscriptions
We removed subscriptions from this website and made all content free to everyone on 8th April 2026. See our FAQs here.
