This is a collection of the best hands which have appeared in E.P.C Cotter's weekly column in "The Financial Times". The majority of the hands are from rubber bridge of which the author is an exponent. The reader is given an insight into the workings of the mind of a master player as he plans his strategy. The book is designed to appeal to bridge-players of all levels. There is a chapter on the finesse which introduces novel concepts, explaining the finesses which are free, indifferent or obligatory. In the final chapter, the author recounts some of the more humorous episodes which have taken place in a lifetime of rubber bridge, and we make the acquaintance of the Colonel, Norman and Charlie, characters the like of whom are known to bridge-players throughout the world.