Television presenter Adam Hart-Davis has to read a whole heap of science, history and history-of-science books for research. When he鈥檚 not 鈥渉opelessly busy鈥�, he still likes books. He鈥檚 stuck into Frederick Forsyth鈥檚 The Day of the Jackal (Arrow, 1995), first read 30 years ago but 鈥淚 still find it hard to put it down鈥�. Given a signed copy by the author, he鈥檚 also enjoying James Dyson鈥� s struggle with dust in Against the Odds (Texere, 2000).
Hart-Davis鈥檚 doctorate is in organometallic chemistry, so he鈥檚 indulging his passion for chemistry with Georgina Ferry鈥檚 Dorothy Hodgkin (Granta, 1999), 鈥渁 most enjoyable story鈥� of the winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964. And Arthur Ransome鈥檚 Swallows and Amazons (Jonathan Cape, 1982) is a book he read 50 years ago. One of the great children鈥檚 stories of all time, he says, 鈥渁nd I met Arthur once; he drew a picture in my autograph book鈥�.