The Universe In A Nutshell by Stephen Hawking (Bantam Press, £20)

THIS is a book that only really passes the "wow!" test the moment the concept of time is explored.

It is then - and possibly only then - that the casual, scientifically-challenged reader will sit up and take notice. At least that's the way it was for me- after all, there's a limit to how much data office-frazzled lobes can absorb.

But the notion of time moving backwards as well as in the more conventional direction is, naturally, irresistible to anyone but the most brain-dead. However, there are actually quite a number of gems hidden in these pages.

Stephen Hawking is an intellectual icon, known not only for the adventurousness of his ideas but also for the clarity and wit with which he expresses them. Like many in the international scientific community, Professor Hawking is seeking to uncover the grail of science - the elusive theory of everything that lies at the heart of the cosmos.

In this persuasive work, he seeks to combine Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and Richard Feynman's idea of multiple histories into one complete unified theory that will describe everything in the universe. And, along the way, he takes us to the wild frontiers where all sorts of ideas may hold the final clue to the puzzle.

The Universe In A Nutshell is a work that will entertain, inform and mystify in equal measure. In fact, it will do everything except bore the reader.

John Phillpott