BOOK: Atrill and E. McLaney (A&M) Accounting & finance for non-specialists Prentice Hall (2006 – 5th edition)


This was a set text for me for a business management course, but would, I think, work well as a stand-alone book for someone looking for a general introduction to financial and management accounting and finance. Black is a CA, accounting academic and was also Chief Examiner for an examination board.

It is clearly written, with lots of examples and exercises, many written in a humorous vein to help the student through this famously boring subject matter. I enjoyed, for example, the story of Marvin the Magician and his finance director (and erstwhile "saw-the-lady-in-two" assistant) Chiquita. It is good, but only an introduction: it does not, for example, deal with, or even much mention, the various types of Accounting Standards. If I contrast it with Frank Wood's "Business Accounting", which I found very useful when I last tried to acquaint myself with the intricacies of accounting 12 years ago, it does seem to lack detail. Check out the reviews for that book, however, and you will find reviewers recommending Black because he is more concise, so I suppose it depends on how much detail you have to absorb, and whether you aspire to be a practitioner or merely to understand accounting.