In the past decade there have been enormous advances in our understanding of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The impetus for these advances has come from a number of directions. First, the discovery in the late 1980s of tau gene mutations in some familial cases of FTD revolutionised the field and led to a huge surge in research related to the genetics and molecular pathology of FTD leading to further genetic discoveries in the past year. Second, the development of neuroimaging techniques – both structural (magnetic resonance imaging; MRI) and functional ((18F)-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography; FDG-PET) – has contributed to our understanding of the structural and functional changes in FTD syndromes. Third, increasing sophistication of neuropsychological methods has led to many insights into the cognitive aspects of the FTD syndromes. Cambridge has been at the forefront of this research effort with contributions to all major areas. Central to these developments was the specialist FTD clinic at Addenbrooke's Hospital, which evolved out of the memory disorders clinics, and was established as a formal multidisciplinary service in 1997. This has enabled us to study large cohorts of patients in life with a range of cognitive and neuroimaging methods. We have also been able to collect over 100 brains of patients with young-onset and atypical dementias which has enabled the pathological and molecular work.

Although there have been three books dedicated to FTD (Kertesz and Munoz, 1998; Pasquier et al., 1996; Snowden et al., 1996) these were all completed before the revolutions in molecular pathology and in neuroimaging. Now seems an ideal time to survey the literature. The current multi-contributor book, written entirely by past and present collaborators in Cambridge, has the advantage of coherence but could be criticised for portraying a biased view of the topic. We have attempted to counter this by surveying thoroughly the published literature, a task which is still not too daunting given that there are some 2000 articles (compared with 30 000 on Alzheimer's disease). The book is aimed at neurologists, particularly those with an interest in cognitive and behavioural disorders, psychologists and psychiatrists. It should also be of interest to basic scientists working in the area of neurodegeneration.