Our Universe - a guide to what’s out there

Some areas of knowledge are no-go for us ordinary terrestrials; we traditionally label them unapproachable and happily leave it at that. Then, once or twice in a generation comes a book so well conceived and written that the dim no-go area becomes a brilliantly lit highway and solitary ignorance becomes shared knowledge. The Double Helix did this for DNA and Origin of Species for evolution. Common to all such groundbreakers are a pronounced authorial stamp, a commitment amounting to passion and an absorbing end-to-end read. Our Universe shows all these properties, as Professor Stannard initiates our exploration by looking (seemingly through the wrong end of the telescope) at atomic physics - showing us not only that nuclear fusion is the essence of sun (and other star) power but that your average atom is a very handy scale model of your actual Universe: a study of one is integral to an understanding of the other.

This established, the rest of the journey, reinforced by informative little quizzes and helpful pictures is far, far easier and much more interesting than we’d ever suppose. Moving out from earth we look at planets, sun and other stars, and galaxies galore to the point at which astronomy becomes cosmology. And now I understand the Big Bang, Blue Giants, Brown Dwarfs, Neutrinos and Super Novae.

Addressing his readers directly and on level terms, Stannard proves an amiable guide. His is the gift of interpreting the obscure simply: his equation of the Universe (as he - and by then his readers - know it) and the existence of God is a gem of quiet logic.

When, a few years ago, I read the author’s first ‘Uncle Albert’ book I was loudly unimpressed. I’ve always distrusted the ‘information novel’ and found Stannard’s style irksome. Here, though, practising his proper trade, he has produced an impressive and memorable guide to the galaxies, for which my stars predict a wide and enthusiastic readership.