This book is the result of a dilemma I had in 1996: I wanted to attend a conference on information theory, I fancied learning to surf, and my position meant that it was very difficult to obtain travel funds. To solve all of these problems in one fell swoop, I decided to organise a cheap conference, in a place anyone who was interested could surf, and to use as a justification a conference on information theory. All I can say is that I thoroughly recommend doing this. Organising the conference was a doddle (a couple of web pages, and a couple of phone calls to the hotel in Newquay). The location was superb. A grand hotel perched on a headland looking out to sea (and the film location of that well-known film Witches). All that and not 100 yards from the most famous surfing beach in Britain. The conference was friendly, and the talks were really very good. The whole experience was only marred by the fact that Jack Scannell was out skilfully surfing the offshore breakers, whilst I was still wobbling on the inshore surf.

Before the conference I had absolutely no intention of producing a book, but after going to the conference, getting assurances from the other editors that they would help, and realising that in fact the talks would make a book that I would quite like to read, I plunged into it.