TABLE OF CONTENTS Some 40 years ago in November 1959, the author was given a tutorial assignment on synthetic polymers. His tutor at Merton College, Oxford, Dr. Courtenay Phillips recommended Paul Flory's book "The Principles of Polymer Chemistry" [1]. The book describes how polymeric materials such as plastics, rubbers and fibres are constructed from long chains of covalently bound atoms. The resultant long chain molecules may consist of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of atoms. This was established by Hermann Staudinger in his macromolecular hypothesis, despite the opposing views that polymeric materials were either ring molecules or were colloidal aggregates of smaller molecules held together by secondary forces in micellar structures (see, for example, [1] [2]). While reading "The Principles of Polymer Chemistry", the author noticed that the largest well characterised ring molecules described in the book had only 24 skeletal bonds. Further reading showed that there was a gap in chemistry waiting to be developed, namely the preparation, characterisation, investigation and possible application of large ring molecules with more than 30 skeletal bonds as well as synthetic cyclic polymers with more than 100 skeletal bonds. The author's main aim in chemistry since that time was to try and establish this new subject area both in collaboration with and alongside other research chemists in this general area. The first edition of "Cyclic Polymers" was...
