Book excerpt: Actuarial Principles: Lifetables and Mortality Models explores the core of actuarial science: the study of mortality and other risks and applications. Including the CT4 and CT5 UK courses, but applicable to a global audience, this work lightly covers the mathematical and theoretical background of the subject to focus on real life practice. It offers a brief history of the field, why actuarial notation has become universal, and how theory can be applied to many situations. Uniquely covering both life contingency risks and survival models, the text provides numerous exercises (and their solutions), along with complete self-contained real-world assignments. Provides detailed coverage of life contingency risks and survival models Presents self-contained chapters with coverage of key topics from both practitioner and theoretical viewpoints Includes numerous real world exercises that are accompanied by enlightening solutions Covers useful background information on how and why the subject has evolved and developed