Switzerland is a hard country to get to know. Many tourists never see the ‘real’ Switzerland behind the neat façade of the tourist industry. I happened to be lucky. I married into a very large, very real, Swiss family. My father-in-law, Mr O. A. Meier, his nine brothers and sisters, and the horde of cousins in different parts of the country provided my introduction to Swiss life. I hope that they will forgive me for not mentioning each by name but I must make two exceptions. Seppi and Erna Seeberger-Krummenacher owned one of the last unspoilt Alpine hotels, Kurhaus Seewenalp. There was no electricity and no motor road to ruin the hiker's paradise until the army commandeered it for manoeuvre grounds. They, their friends and the lively assortment of hotel guests from all over Switzerland put up with a lot of questions. They know how much I owe them. The other exception is also a cousin; Dr Anton M. Meier, theologian and Director of the Kinder- und Erziehungsheim St Josef in Grenchen, has been the spiritus rector of this entire operation. He allowed me to use his flat in Grenchen during an extended visit in 1972, arranged many fascinating interviews for me and set exacting intellectual standards for the enterprise. I know that I have fallen short of them, but, rather like the Alps themselves, I have known that his standards were there as a permanent background and goal.