to write about subjects because they can't remember what it was like not to know all the stuff they know now. Writers should be the middleman between the experts and the general public. What drives you to seek the obscure? I've quite got a good retentive memory. I'm a handy person to have at a pub quiz, dare I say it myself. And I suppose I'm quite easily bored so I like new topics. If I don't slightly amuse myself when I'm writing a book, I don't suppose the reader would be very amused either. I'm very keen on bringing the familiar back to life. If I can draw people's attention to that bubble wrap was invented as a kind of wallpaper, it never looks quite the same again. A Renaissance man approach to the world, I guess. Yeah, I would have loved to have been around for the Renaissance. I don't like too much specialization. I think then, you can't see the wood from the trees. You're too up close and you only know about fruit flies. Can you tell me about your new book, How to Watch the Olympics? First of all, everyone's going to watch it on TV, so in a way, it's something to help you get the most of it watching it on TV. It's just striking how we all go nuts for all these sports every four years, but we pay no attention to them at all, most of us, the rest of the