The five editions of this book traverse and record significant changes to the field of educational leadership and management. The first edition was published in 1986, before the seismic changes to the English and Welsh educational system engendered by the Education Reform Act, which introduced a prescriptive national curriculum and enhanced self-management through ‘local management of schools’. The second edition, published in 1995, referred to the ‘tentative steps’ being taken to develop the managerial competence of senior staff, particularly headteachers. The School Management Task Force (SMTF, 1990) set the agenda for management development but, unlike many other countries, there was no national programme of management training for heads and very little provision of any kind for deputy heads and middle managers. By the time the third edition was published, in 2003, the English landscape had been transformed by the opening and subsequent expansion of the National College for School Leadership (NCSL), to national and international acclaim. The NCSL managed the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH), and also launched provision for new heads, deputy heads, middle-level leaders and senior leadership teams, while also commissioning leadership research and external evaluations of its leadership programmes. By 2010, when the fourth edition was published, NCSL was under review, following the appointment of a new Secretary of State for Education. Subsequently, it was first downgraded and then closed. Its state-of-the-art conference facility is now a University of Nottingham hotel.