Acknowledgements

This book was written at the suggestion of my son, Julian. I responded to his suggestion by saying that there was no way I could write an introductory book like this, even if I had the time. So here it is.

I’d like to thank Andrew Winnard of Cambridge University Press for excellent proposals for improving the first draft (which was too funny; as you’ll see, this draft isn’t), three anonymous reviewers for Cambridge University Press for correcting one or two embarrassing factual slips among many other things, Francis Nolan for help with spectrograms, and Jeffrey Watumull for helping me to keep my faith in aliens. And, of course, Clover for reasons that will become obvious.

Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright-holders. The publisher will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity. Apologies are expressed for any omission.