In February 1944, a rag-tag collection of clerks, drivers, doctors, muleteers, and other base troops, stiffened by a few dogged Yorkshiremen managed to hold out against some of the finest infantry in the Japanese Army, and then defeat them. It became know as The Defence of the Admin Box. This book deals with this battle.

____________________THE Sunday Times BESTSELLERA New York Times Summer readWashington Post Top Twenty books to read this summerA Sunday Times summer read'An angry and important work of historical detection, calling time on the misogyny that has fed the Ripper myth.

The author 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. This title is about 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.