A Short History of Nearly Everything

£9.99

Bryson hangs up his walking boots and other travelling paraphernalia to instead study, well, everything. He’s driven by simple questions and an enquiring mind. He doesn’t want so much as to know what is at the centre of the earth, or how heavy the planet is, but rather how it is we do know the answers to such questions. The textbook writers of his childhood would rather withhold such information and instead offer questions at the end of each chapter on the bare, unsubstantiated, facts.

Bryson begins at the beginning with the Big Bang, muses on the universe and solar system, before considering the creation of the Earth, and the awesome atom, before moving on to the wonders of life itself, before reaching the creation of human life. It’s a big history and a long journey, yet Bryson, with all his humour and wonder makes the science clearer and more interesting than ever before.