I don't care about the error that another reviewer got excited about as it doesn't make any material difference to the level of understanding I wanted to get to. And, unlike another reviewer, I find Mr Tomkins both dull and patronising. This book, in contrast, is extremely well written and never patronising.

I was extremely impressed and awed by the mastery of the subject the author has and that was demonstrated by the fact that he could explain the subject to a mathematical cretin like me...

First the good points:

This volume is fine for the non-technical reader, but as an added extra for the brave, does contain some nice appendixes giving extra mathematical detail. It is ok as a general introduction to the history of early quantum theory and its main creators, though in part looks like a fanzine for Paul Dirac (a former tutor of the author).

Now the bad:

Any lack of real technical depth is forgivable for a book aimed at the general reader. What is NOT forgiveable is that the author's explanation of the nature of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is plain wrong. He falls for the classic mistake of thinking this arises from momentum transfer between interacting particles during measurement. Heisenberg himself originally thought this, but later corrected himself. I can't believe the author would repeat this error - although this is a book for the non-technical reader, I still expect it to be technically accurate.

Granted, that the author is eminent in this field and was himself a student of the great Paul Dirac. However, this book does not sit easily in a series designed to make a subject approachable to the novice. It has far too much esoteric maths than is good for a book of this genre. An ever stronger criticism is the fact that instead of keeping to basic physics ideas such as the double slit experiment (which this book does well!) and then developing the ideas of atomic structure, and the uncertainty principle, it dwells on things like operators and such like.

If you want a good introduction to Quantum Theory, look no further than the books by George Gamow's "The New World of Mr Tompkins" or "Mr Tomkins in paperback", or, "Uncle Albert and the Quantum Quest".