Theodor Escherich will always be associated with the ubiquitous micro-organism which he is credited with first describing and bears his name, although few people will be aware of his discovery and dismissal of what we now know as Campylobacter. This slim volume collates the papers from the 4-day symposium that was held near Würzburg to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth. A total of 27 offerings are included, divided into four broad themes, with the majority focussing on pathogenesis. As may be expected, the topics covered are very broad, and include both reviews and short research articles. The breadth of the field, and the inclusion of single papers on Shigella and Salmonella leads to a lack of cohesion and focus, but nevertheless, there should be something of interest to most E. coli researchers - in the case of this reviewer, the first section on Escherich's life and work offered a new insight into the man behind the bug.