This book is a conference proceedings based on the 1996 Durham Symposium on "Galois representations in arithmetic algebraic geometry". The title was interpreted loosely and the symposium covered recent developments on the interface between algebraic number theory and arithmetic algebraic geometry. The book reflects this and contains a mixture of articles. Some are expositions of subjects that have received substantial recent attention: Erez on geometric trends in Galois module theory; Mazur on rational points on curves and varieties; Moonen on Shimura varieties in mixed characteristics; Rubin and Scholl on the work of Kato on the Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture; and Schneider on rigid geometry. Some are research papers by: Coleman and Mazur, Goncharov, Gross, Serre.