This book celebrates the scholarship and achievements of Nicholas Tyacke on his retirement from forty-one years’ teaching and service at UCL in September 2006. It was obviously not possible to invite all of his large circle of friends and admirers to contribute to this volume, although we did lose one leading light along the way: Conrad Russell was included in the team but alas was no longer with us when these essays went to press. We are grateful to our fellow-essayists, who (for the most part') made editorial work a fairly light load; to Sarah Tyacke, for much invaluable advice and for a copy of Nicholas's photograph; and to Caroline Palmer and her team at Boydell & Brewer for supervising, with consummate expertise, the production of the volume.

We acknowledge, with gratitude, the fact that publication of this volume has been made possible by grants from the late Miss Isobel Thornley's Bequest to the University of London, and Nicholas's own department of history at University College London.