England was full of words I'd never heard before - streaky bacon, short back and sides, Belisha beacon, serviettes, high tea, ice-cream cornet.

I really enjoy going to a library and spending the day doing research - to me that is the most pleasurable part of writing the science book.

From an evolutionary point of view, sex is really just a reward mechanism to encourage us to pass on our genetic material.

Romans park their cars the way I would park if I had just spilled a beaker of hydrochloric acid on my lap.

Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old.

Houses aren't refuges from history. They are where history ends up.

English grammar is so complex and confusing for the one very simple reason that its rules and terminology are based on Latin, a language with which it has precious little in common.