![]() (This is John Derbyshire’s style: his Unknown Quantity is one of the best histories of algebra there is.) Another tactic is to get down your old university textbooks, take a deep breath and train the reader up through the mathematical basics of your chosen subject, using a combination of technical exercises and metaphors. G.H Hardy’s 1940 classic, A Mathematician’s Apology, is the best example of this approach. There are three ways to write a popular maths book. I have realised that I’ve had been looking at Villani’s Theorem in the wrong light. There’s hardly a chapter in Birth of a Theorem that I could enjoy. An honest reviewer should obey his prejudices, so I’ve tried to find a way to cover up my dislike of Cédric Villani’s book, just as I tried to find a way I could slag off John Derbyshire’s excellent Prime Obsession (about the Riemann Hypothesis) when it came out. To give the problem extra calculus, my favourite maths writer is a sour-faced white supremacist with a mouth the shape of staple, who thinks women in America should be deprived of the vote and apparently calls himself ‘Derb’. ![]() But as a contribution to the genre of popular maths, the book stinks. Birth of a Theorem is by one of the great geniuses of today, a cosmopolitan, liberal-minded man who helps his wife look after their children, likes big-hearted folk songs, welcomes diversity and wears the same jewellery as I do. ![]()
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