Roger French studied zoology at St Catherine's College, Oxford and took a D.Phil. in the history of science, working on medicine in the eighteenth century. He was a lecturer in the history of science at the Universities of Leicester and Aberdeen and lecturer and Director of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. This book is the result of a combination of academic research and practical experience: Roger bought a cide-mill cottage in the 1960s where he made, and drank, a great deal of cider, recovering centuries-old techniques and preserving old varieties of cider fruit. He died in 2002.