I am an author and journalist, specialising in science and mathematics, the only two subjects I have the faintest clue about.

Here you will find a short, formal, boring biography, as well as a longer, chirpier, more colourful biography covering my childhood and then my college years.

You will also find details of my brilliant literary agent and a page containing press photos.

The rest of the website covers my work in general. For example, my latest book is The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets. Prior to that, I published Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial, which I co-authored with Edzard Ernst, the world’s first professor of complementary medicine.

I am also the author of Big Bang, a history of cosmology, and you can find more details here. Or, in 1996, I made a BBC documentary about Fermat’s Last Theorem, and the following year I published a book on the subject – the first mathematical book to be a UK No.1 bestseller! My other book, was The Code Book, a history of codes and code breaking from Ancient Egypt to the Internet. To learn more about codes, visit the Cryptography section, including the Black Chamber, which is a fun, interactive section of the site which allows you to encipher your own text, crack some coded messages and learn about the history and development of codes over the centuries.

Boring Biography

Colourful Biography

Literary Agent

Press Photos