Book excerpt: The theory of analyzable functions is a technique used to study a wide class of asymptotic expansion methods and their applications in analysis, difference and differential equations, partial differential equations and other areas of mathematics. Key ideas in the theory of analyzable functions were laid out by Euler, Cauchy, Stokes, Hardy, E. Borel, and others. Then in the early 1980s, this theory took a great leap forward with the work of J. Ecalle. Similar techniques and conceptsin analysis, logic, applied mathematics and surreal number theory emerged at essentially the same time and developed rapidly through the 1990s. The links among various approaches soon became apparent and this body of ideas is now recognized as a field of its own with numerous applications. Thisvolume stemmed from the International Workshop on Analyzable Functions and Applications held in Edinburgh (Scotland). The contributed articles, written by many leading experts, are suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in asymptotic methods.