Tom Lehrer is an American satirist, singer-songwriter, musician and mathematician, most famous for his humorous songs from the 1950s and 60s, including The Elements, a tongue-twisting song with lyrics made up of every element in the Periodic Table. He began writing and performing his songs at Harvard University where he studied mathematics from the age of 15. After multiple albums, he largely gave up performing and began to teach mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, moving to the University of California in the 1970s. In 2020, at the age of 92, Lehrer donated all the lyrics and music written by him to the public domain.

His scathing creations remain one of the most original - not to mention mathematically elegant - bodies of artistic work to come out of the United States in the twentieth century. Andrew Robinson, author and journalist (Nature.com)

The cleverest and funniest man of the 20th century Daniel Radcliffe (after singing The Elements on TV in 2020)

Former Scottish Teacher of the Year, Chris Smith teaches, tweets, dreams and sings songs about maths. In 2020, Chris and a team of famous UK mathematical YouTubers created a video performing this song, which was the inspiration for the book. Chris hopes it will inspire a generation of mini mathematicians.

The world would be a better place if Mr Smith was everyone's maths teacher! Here's your chance to join him on a fabulously entertaining journey exploring how each of us is using Maths all the time. Bobby Seagull, mathematician, broadcaster and writer

Elina Braslina has illustrated over 25 children's and YA books by authors from her home country of Latvia. Her board books by Lawrence Schimel depicting LGBTQ families have been published in 21 languages. She is also a production designer for animated films and makes feminist art in her spare time.

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