The Address Book

Over the years, millions of school children must have written out their address in the same way their house number and street, their town, their country, their continent, planet Earth, the universeFollowing this simplest of patterns, taking each line of the address as a starting point, Tim Radford explores our place in the scheme of things why we are attached to a particular geographical place and what significance do we have when faced with the realms of astronomy and astrophysics.Fascinating, entertaining and completely original, The Address Book tackles some of the most fundamental questions facing us, and allows us see ourselves completely afresh.

Tim Radford is a freelance journalist. He worked for The Guardian for 32 years, becoming (among other things) letters editor, arts editor, literary editor and science editor. He won the Association of British Science Writers award for science writer of the year four times. He served on the UK committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. He has lectured about science and the media in dozens of British and foreign cities. He has written one book, The Crisis of Life On Earth, and edited two books of science writing for the Guardian.