Simplistic notions about negotiation such as "win-win" and "win-lose" are not where it's at for G. Richard Shell - two parties would not agree to a deal unless they thought agreement was better than no deal at all.

For Shell, skilful negotiation is an attitude thing: you need a confident attitude based on knowledge of the negotiation process.

Shell is director of the Wharton Executive Negotiation Workshop at the University of Pennsylvania - about as far as you can get from the infamous smoky back rooms of old - and has seen an explosion of writing and research on negotiation in the past 25 years.

He is irritated at how inaccessible these research findings are, and Bargaining For Advantage is his plain-talking answer to the man and woman in the street.

Shell's information-based bargaining principles are illustrated with examples, featuring such figures as Sony-founder Akio Morita, J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller Senior, Donald Trump, Mahatma Gandhi and Benjamin Franklin.

Shell emphasises that most of us can be good negotiators (if we follow his rules of course) and that negotiation takes place every day in a myriad situations, from the breakfast table to the hospital corridor.

It may come as a surprise that an expert on negotiation such as Shell does not approve of telling lies - on the contrary, you should simply use the truth to your advantage. He believes in ethics and even devotes a chapter to the subject.

Bargaining For Advantage succeeds in its aim of demystifying the negotiation process and showing the less-confident how to acquire the necessary skills to bargain their way to success. This is a well-written book, which can be sampled by the merely curious or read cover-to-cover by the industrial relations professional.

Like all American experts, Shell is 100 per cent confident about his advice and believes that what used to be anxiety-filled encounters can be transformed into enjoyable and profitable challenges.