The origin of this volume was an invitation I received from Dr Marek Finger of the Charles University, Prague, and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, to give four lectures on low temperature methods at an international summer school on hyperfine interactions and physics with oriented nuclei organised at a chateau in Bechyně in the Czechoslovakian countryside, in September 1985. The topic of the summer school was something I knew little about, but low temperature physics is my metier and the preparation of the lectures was frankly not a large task, particularly in view of the fact that I was already the author of Refrigeration and thermometry below one kelvin (Sussex University Press, 1976). I decided to use a minimum of prose, produced in the usual garish colours, together with a large number of diagrams from various sources converted into transparencies. I would depend on my knowledge of the subject matter to talk through the transparencies in an unscripted way. It took me four days to think through the content and prepare the material. All the lectures were given on 3 September 1985. The organising committee originally had no intention of publishing proceedings but many participants expressed their desire to have the lectures and contributions presented in written form. My heart sank at the thought of converting my bundle of transparencies into something which could fairly be described as a camera-ready manuscript, but I agreed to try. It was like trying to turn a movie into a novella. I worked spasmodically on it, missing all of a series of extended deadlines until eventually the editors gave up on me and the proceedings appeared without my contribution.