Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely at home he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. The ultimate eye-opening journey through time and space, revealing the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.

A Short History of Nearly Everything was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, won the Aventis Prize for Science Books and won the Descartes Science Communication Prize. Translated into 33 languages, the Black Swan paperback is the UK's bestselling non-fiction paperback of the 21st century.

Available in lavishly illustrated hardback

In the bestselling, prize-winning A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the world of science both understandable and entertaining to millions of people around the globe. Now in this glorious new illustrated edition, everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization is even more vividly brought to life with stunning full-colour photographs, drawings, portraits and cartoons.

Also available for younger readers:  A Really Short History of Nearly Everything

For more on this book, visit the resources section

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'Mr Bryson has a natural gift for clear and vivid expression. I doubt that a better book for the layman about the findings of modern science has been written.'
Sunday Telegraph

'I don't doubt that with A Short History of Nearly Everything he is plugging a gap in the market. As a result, several hundred thousand people will end up knowing a little bit more about the universe than they did before.'
Daily Telegraph

'It is one of the book's great achievements that Bryson is able to weave a satisfying universal narrative without sparing the reader one whit of scientific ignorance or doubt ... It represents a wonderful education, and all schools would be better places if it were the core science reader on the curriculum.'
The Times Literary Supplement

'This most enjoyable of books ...A travelogue of science, with a witty, engaging, and well-informed guide.'
The Times

'Lucid, thoughtful and, above all, entertaining.'
The Scotsman

for more videos, visit the Bill Bryson youtube channel