The first few chapters cover the origins and history including a very useful 'Seven steps to progress', and a guide to mapping progress of each step. The author then goes on to clearly explain anatomy and body architecture, in order to deepen understanding of tai chi postures with some excellent diagrams - this alone sets the book apart from many others I had considered. At this point I expected to be lead straight into the complete short form, but yet again the author guides the reader through almost every imaginable aspect of the art-form.... moves, postures, language of movements and warm-up exercises. The complete short form that follows is very concise. Every 2 pages in view illustrate step-by-step the sequence of postures, with reference to the intended or expected mental awareness. The photography is stunning, had it not been I would have found the descriptive content mildly confusing for each posture.

This book is perfectly balanced to encourage reading page by page, front to back, without the temptation to skip directly onto the 'form'. However, I would heartily recommend the last section of this book be read first - Tai chi experiences, a collection of fourteen vastly different people, young to old (13-70), beginner to experienced (6 weeks-15 years), with varying states of health, male and female. A fantastic study of experiences and benefits gained.

Tai chi cannot be learnt from pages alone, but in my opinion this book provides the closest possibilty, more importantly it is ideal for practice between classes.