William Hartston is a Cambridge-educated mathematician and industrial psychologist. Between 1962 and 1987 he played chess competitively, becoming an international master and winning the British chess championship in 1973 and 1975. He runs competitions in creative thinking at the annual Mind Sports Olympiad, writes the off-beat Beachcomber column for the Daily Express, where he is also the opera critic, and is the author of several books on chess, numbers, humour and trivia, including The Things That Nobody Knows and Even More Things That Nobody Knows.
If you're not one of the lucky few who can say, ""Oh, mathematics was my best subject at school,"" then you might find yourself stumped by the news, or personal finance, or chaos and catastrophe (yes, William Hartston shows us there's maths involved there, too). Luckily, Numb and Number is able to explain these things and more, in a way that's easy to understand and even enjoyable to read. * BBC Science Focus * A wise, witty, and insightful guide to clear thinking amid a deluge of percentages and probabilities. Learn to spot the fake formulas and the spurious statistics. Up to 100% of readers will find this book utterly fascinating. Recommended by 92.53% of mathematicians. -- Ian Stewart, author of Do Dice Play God?