In most areas of human endeavor, bluffing is an easy way of getting by -- a method of artificially appearing knowledgeable.The Bluffer's Guides are a three million-copy best-selling series of snappy little books containing facts, jargon, and inside information -- all that readers need to know to hold their own among the experts.
After spending a large chunk of his childhood in an involuntary study of the tuberculosis bacillus, Brian Malpass wound up at Birmingham University with a First in Chemistry and a Doctorate. When asked what he wrote his thesis on, he replies truthfully, 'Fag packets mostly'. He did in fact make a living as a polymer chemist before drifting into surface science and thence into the management of science and technology. After that, by a series of unplanned sideways and upward lurches, he staggered into finance and ultimately general management of a large public company. He now seems to have embarked on yet another career as a writer, watched spellbound by his wife, a fellow lapsed chemist, and their two grown-up daughters -- who have turned out remarkably well in the circumstances.