He added that it was the second time he had been forced to demand an explanation from the Crown Prosecution Service about the length of time taken to bring a case to trial.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Wales | South East Wales | Judge hits out at court case time

Mr Gribbin's prose is confident, and his amusing asides include an explanation of the origins of soda water and the observation that the length of a French nobleman's title was, by and large, inversely proportional to his social standing.

ECONOMIST: History of science: Time's arrow | The