The Diary of Curious Cuthbert

"Jack Challoner has a really deep knowledge of science and science education, and is one of our most accomplished science communicators. But he is also one of our least famous. He has written about forty popular science books, including a recent book called Home Lab , which he ghostwrote for Robert Winston. It won the Royal Society Prize for best children’s science book, and no one knows Jack wrote it. I know that’s how ghostwriting works, but still, it seems a shame to me. The Diary of Curious Cuthbert is, I think, one of his best books. It combines great storytelling and creativity with a really accurate and accessible explanation of the science. The book is filled with Jack’s love and knowledge of science, presenting the same kind of ideas that you would get in a popular science book in a gloriously creative manner. Sadly he had to self-publish it, even though he has written many popular science books, many of them bestsellers. Incredibly, however, no mainstream publisher would accept this book. The story of the “Unwell Well” in the book is just a fantastic little story of the local village getting ill, and Curious Cuthbert finding out why and solving the problem. So, on one level, it works fantastically as a story. But it also includes scientific details about how microbes lead to disease and how scientific equipment can let us find out things we wouldn’t otherwise know — the way in which Jack conveys some of the biggest ideas in science to children, and all through rhyme, is just a wonderful accomplishment."