ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe a great debt to the experts who took the time to talk to me, and to friends and acquaintances who helped out with indispensable ideas, insights and encouragement. They include Daron Acemoglu, Paola Antonelli, Art Aron, David Bain, Katarina Begus, Colin Campbell, Chris Cook, David Dobbs, David Dwan, Cora Dzubak, Susan Engel, Amanda Feve, Teodora Gliga, Hazel Hutchinson, Sean Holden, Maira Kalman, Annette Lareau, Linsey McGoey, Janet Metcalfe, Jonathan Powell, Mikkel Ramussen, Violet Rosser, Dan Rothstein, Carol Sansone, Brian Smith, Sophie von Stumm, Rory Sutherland, Daniel Willingham and Jack Woodward. I’d like to thank John Lloyd in particular for being so generous with his time and wisdom.

Thanks also to those who have helped me unwittingly, including the many experts to whom I didn’t get to talk, but whose ideas and research inform this book. Annie Murphy Paul’s education newsletter has been a constant source of inspiration and information, as has Tyler Cowen’s blog ­Marginal Revolution. I have also been stimulated and sustained by The Browser, Brain Pickings, the Radiolab podcasts, and too many of those I follow on Twitter to mention. As I say, the internet can be a superb instrument of curiosity.

Thank you to my wonderful agent, Nicola Barr, whose enthusiasm kept this book afloat when its author’s motivation was in the doldrums. Thanks to my US agent Celeste Fine for believing that this book deserved an American readership. Thank you to Quercus and all who sail in her, particularly my editor Richard Milner, and to Basic Books, especially Tisse Takagi. I’m grateful to Stephen Brown for his comments on the first chapters. Thanks to the staff at the Wellcome Library. Thank you to my mother, Margaret Leslie, and my brother, Stephen Leslie, for their encouragement and suggestions. My father passed away during the writing of this book; otherwise, I would be thanking him for instilling in me, by example, both epistemic and empathic curiosity. Lastly, thank you to my wife Alice, my best editor, best friend and amazing mother to our inveterately curious daughter.