Qualitative research has become a vast and complex approach to understanding social life, riddled with diversity and debate. Martyn Hammersley has, in this short text, managed to introduce all of this complexity and diversity without baffling the reader. It is an inspiring and exciting text, full of relevant examples illustrating the diversity of qualitative research today. Written by an undoubted authority in the field, this accessible book should whet the appetite of any would-be qualitative researcher.

Karen O'Reilly, Professor of Sociology, University of Loughborough

This is a well written, authoritative text on qualitative research, written by a leading scholar in the field. The style is accessible without being patronizing; it deals with both methodology and research practice; it provides helpful definitions and typologies; it gives a sense of both the distinctiveness and diversity of qualitative approaches to social research. I enjoyed reading it. I think it will have a broad appeal to those new to qualitative research, to students and to those working within the field. In that sense it manages to be both introductory and thought provoking.

Amanda Coffey, Cardiff University School of Social Sciences, UK