Just like you know when you have a really dire book, you definitely know when you have an excellent book and this one is definitely an excellent one.

It starts off with the usual "Hello World" using straightforward, uncomplicated language. Everything is explained and explained in enough detail to convey not only what happens on the surface, but also slightly deeper down. This "taking by the hand" approach is incredibly effective and with the clear graphics and writing style demonstrates how to create applications quickly and efficiently.

As you go further into the book, the level of complexity increases, but at the same time, so does the explanation.

All of the main classes are covered - windows, menus, messages, slots and signals and covered in understandable language.

The book comes with a CD containing all of the source code as well as Qt 3.2 for Windows (non-commercial licence - in itself worth more than the value of the book), Linux and MacOS. It also comes with Borland C++ 5 (non-commercial) and Borland C++ 6 (trial version).

With Qt being one of the main widget sets on Linux (due to the amount it is used with KDE) as well as growing in popularity on the Windows and MacOSX platforms, this book is not only great value, but a very good way into learning about one of the premier cross platform widget libraries.

Okay, it's not much use if you don't understand C++, but then if you don't understand C++, why would you buy this book?