A snip

I came across this fine set of books from Wiley in the course of trying to find something completely different, a set which costs approximately ten times more than the other offerings that I came across - not that I can afford them either. Presumably targeted at the libraries of various organs of government. Perhaps those of consultancies in this line of work. But how many individuals?

The pdf of the table of contents runs to six pages, pages which suggest a large family of contributors. I don't suppose that even they get free copies of the whole thing, just a couple of reprints of their own contributions, on the grounds that it is nice for contributors to see how their contribution looks when set up in real type.

From where, for some reason, I associate to the document that was so secret that the chap who wrote it was excluded from the circulation list. A small prize is offered to the reader who comes up with the best explanation of why one might do such a thing.

PS: the table of contents does not tell us when the various chapters were written. How many years was construction of this magnificent book spread over? How much use is a book put to bed over five years ago in this fast moving world of ours? Why don't they do it online with regular updates, all included in the price, in the way of the more modern lawyers?