This two-volume book contains selected papers from the international conference "Groups St. Andrews 1997 in Bath". The articles are arranged in roughly alphabetical order and cover a wide spectrum of modern group theory. There are articles based on lecture courses given by five main speakers together with refereed survey and research articles contributed by other conference participants. Proceedings of earlier "Groups St. Andrews" conferences have had a major impact on the development of group theory and these volumes should be equally important.