I am specially happy to preface this book. First, because it is always a pleasure to be able to speak well of a friend's work; and Francis Albarède is a friend of long standing! We both embarked on our academic careers at about the same time. After some solid grounding in geology at the University of Montpellier, we were fortunate enough to begin our doctoral research in geochemistry in the 1970s in Professor Claude Allègre's laboratory at the Paris Institut de Physique du Globe, at a time when the discipline was really taking off in France. We also helped set up degree courses in geochemistry at the recently founded University of Paris 7, where we were appointed Assistant Lecturers. Our work together resulted in the publication of a short book in 1976, primarily for students, which quickly sold out and curiously enough was never reprinted! Few universities in those days offered specialist courses in geochemistry.

Times have clearly changed since then! Geochemistry is now taught in most universities and it is needless to recall here the fundamental contribution that this discipline has made to all areas of Earth sciences and cosmochemistry. It is always helpful, though, for students and for non-specialist faculty to have a textbook that provides a review of the basic concepts and the most recent contributions to the discipline. And this is the second reason why I am happy to present this book; because Francis Albarède's work fulfills both these requirements.