The review editor sent me a book to review for Gut with holidays looming. He left a week before me and is currently observing whales off the east cost of the USA where I hope he will encounter the albino whale. I, on the other hand, am in a more peaceful location surrounded by the truly magnificent lochs, standing stones, stone circles, chambered cains, duns, and crannogs on the Outer Hebridean island of North Uist.

The book Therapeutic Roles of Selective COX-2 Inhibitors is the latest in a series of similar books edited by Vane and Bolting, and I have found it in many ways as interesting and extraordinary as my surroundings. It exceeded all expectations, bringing …