Science: A History 1543-2001 by John Gribbin
'A spectacularly fine and successful work of its kind. It is based on vast learning. It communicates scientific problems and investigations with command, clarity, expertise, and unflagging energy. I found it a deeply absorbing read. Certain narrative passages are quite brilliant. Gribbin knows how to make science come alive, without hype or melodrama. This is partly because he is a past-master of the thumbnail-sketch biography. So many scientists here come alive! I know no other up-to-date single-volume history of science of this kind. I feel sure it will have a wide and enthusiastic general-reader audience' - Roy Porter