Medical history taking is both an art and a logical framework for exploring a wide variety of presenting complaints that healthcare professionals will confront on a daily basis. Taking a good medical history is essential for good patient care. Traditionally this has been a long and involved process that often lacks focus. The non-specialist may be inexperienced in knowing what key questions are vital. The approach of this text is to refine the question set for each medical and surgical speciality down to the fundamentals of what meaningful information can be derived, what discriminating details are required and what key things need to be actioned based on the evidence provided.