Brian Clegg

Ghost Particle: Alan Chodos and James Riordan ****

The popular science market is reasonably well served with books on the neutrino. Frank Close's Neutrino is still the best on the basics despite being over ten years old, while Leonard Cole's Chasing the Ghost gives interesting insights to the work of…

The Caledonian Gambit (SF) - Dan Moren ****

This is a novel with a classic science fiction setting - empire versus federation / commonwealth / rebel alliance with roots that stretch back to the likes of Asimov's Foundation series and reach into the science fantasy world of Star Wars. There's…

The Spirit of Mathematics - David Acheson ****

The subtitle of this slim book is 'algebra and all that', presumably in reference to David Acheson's impressively entertaining general mathematics title, 1089 and all that (itself, a reference to 1066 and all that). What Acheson managed with that…

I want to write a non-fiction book - part 4 - the pitch letter

To date in this series, we've got a book proposal together. There's one last component that can seem relatively trivial - but in reality requires as much effort as you can put into it - the pitch letter. This is the cover letter for your proposal. In…

Aristotle: Understanding the World's Greatest Philosopher - John Sellars ****

You wait ages for a good book on Ancient Greek philosopher, and two come along in a matter of weeks. Hot on the heels of Rovelli's Anaximander comes Aristotle from John Sellars. For me, this is the ideal way to get an introduction to one of the great…

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels - Janice Hallett *****

It seemed almost impossible after Janice Hallett's first two novels, The Appeal and The Twyford Code that things could only go down hill - yet, somehow, she's managed to better them both with her latest. While continuing in the same style of…

Brian Clegg — The Perfect Place To Write

‘Some of my fellow coffee shop typists seem quite happy to join the queue for a refill, leaving their precious equipment and wordcount sitting on an unattended table. I’m far too paranoid to get up without packing everything away.’

The One - Heinrich Päs ****

At first glance this book has all the hallmarks of an attempt to tie quantum woo into ancient philosophical and religious beliefs, where some vague resemblance between an ancient observation about, say, 'the oneness of everything' and some aspect of…

I want to write a non-fiction book - part 3 - finishing your proposal

The previous part of this series looked at putting together an outline, which both helps the writer get ideas together and is an essential part of a book proposal. Here we'll look at what else a good book proposal contains. Always remember that in…

Review: The Twyford Code - Janice Hallett *****

Hugely impressed by Janice Hallett's The Appeal, I had to buy her second novel, The Twyford Code and was equally pleased, though for slightly different reasons. Once again, what we have here is an ingenious mystery novel, constructed in an unusual…

Off Earth - Erika Nesvold ***

Subtitled Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space, this book could perhaps do with a trigger warning for space enthusiasts, because large chunks of it read like a catalogue of arguments – social and political, rather than technical…

The Lost World and The Poison Belt (SF) - Arthur Conan Doyle ****

The MIT Press 'Radium Age' series makes a very positive hit with the highly readable (if occasionally offensive by modern standards) 1912 The Lost World, coupled with a far less known, but nonetheless interesting, novella featuring the same…

Why backgammon is a better game than chess

I freely admit that chess, for those who enjoy it, is a wonderful game, but I honestly believe that as a game, backgammon is better (and this isn't just because I'm a lot better at playing backgammon than chess). Having relatively recently written a…

The Man from the Future - Ananyo Bhattacharya *****

There are very few individuals who have made such wide contributions to mathematical and scientific topics as did John von Neumann. In this splendid scientific biography, Ananyo Bhattacharya introduces to many for the first time both von Neumann's…

Marcus Chown - Five Way Interview

Marcus Chown graduated from the University of London in 1980 with a first class degree in physics. He also earned a Master of Science in astrophysics from the California Institute of Technology. With much experience writing for magazines such as New…

I want to write a non-fiction book - part 2 - Outlining

As I mentioned recently, not everyone is a writer - but plenty of people would like to write a book. I've had over 50 books commercially published, so thought it might be useful to do a short series on the essentials of writing a non-fiction book and…

Review: How to be Creative - A Practical Guide for the Mathematical Sciences - Nicholas Higham and Dennis Sherwood ****

Some subscribe to the view that creativity is only about the arts - but this is to misunderstand the nature of creativity. There is a huge amount of creativity in the sciences, yet we rarely seen any guidance on improving it. (Creativity is also…

Anaximander and the Nature of Science - Carlo Rovelli ****

In my experience, working scientists often get history of science wrong - in this case, as it's arguably more history of philosophy, I can't say whether or not Carlo Rovelli is straying far from what's known to make his point, but what he has to say…

I want to write a non-fiction book - part 1 - Is my idea a book?

As I mentioned recently, not everyone is a writer - but plenty of people would like to write a book. I've had over 50 books commercially published, so thought it might be useful to do a short series on the essentials of writing a non-fiction book and…

The Phantom Scientist (SF) - Robin Cousin ****

Over the years I've come across a range of graphic novels and graphic popular science (that's 'graphic' in the sense of illustrated, not explicit) and rarely found one that wasn't a bit of a disappointment compared with a traditional book. I think…