As mentioned in the Preface to the seventh edition of this work, a change to a new publisher has made it possible to reset the whole text. Not surprisingly such a large amount of typesetting introduced some typographical errors. Those found by now have been corrected, as has been other inaccuracies which the reviewers and readers of the book brought to my attention. A small number of additional references have also been included. For the sake of completeness the Prefaces to the third, fourth and fifth editions have also been added.

I am particularly indebted to Dr E. Hecht who in a thorough review of the seventh edition noted several errors and inaccuracies that have now been corrected. I am also obliged to Dr S. H. Wiersma and Mr Damon Diehl who read much of the text very carefully and supplied me with long lists of misprints and other errors. I must also thank my friends and colleagues Professor Taco Visser, Dr Daniel F. V. James, Dr Peter Milonni, Professor Richard M. Sillitto, Mrs Winifred Sillitto and Dr Andrei Shchegrov for drawing my attention to a number of errors. Finally I wish to express my indebtedness to my colleague and former student Dr Greg Gbur for much help with the preparation of the corrected version.