Rich pickings

Best Books by Denise Dresner (Helicon, £16.99, ISBN 1 85986 134 2) is on enormous book list. Don’t yawn. It’s fascinoting. Its big section on science and technology covers every aspect and the recommenders are specialists or authors themselves of books written for the general reader -and often both. Some approve highly of their own works and why not? Each list carries on epigram from some notable, for example, Paul Getty’s: “The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights.” An excellent publication for autodidacts and others. Royalties go to the Oxfam Literacy Fund.