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The architectural profession in Britain nearly didn’t survive the onslaught of Thatcherism in the 1980s. It was a three pronged attack – on the five year full-time course, on the legal protection of the title ‘architect’, and on the standard fee scale. The first two were successfully deflected but the third hit home and the profession lost confidence. Some of its members began to give away their most valuable asset: the ability to invent and to relate invention to the aspirations of building users. This is what Duffy calls architectural knowledge. It is a simple but solid concept, developed gradually over a period of 30 years, as this collection of articles shows. Re-publishing articles in book form often serves no other purpose than to flatter the author, but here the exercise is worth while as it reminds architects that they do indeed have something of practical value to offer to society, especially now that we are allowed to use the word again. COLIN DAVIES