I rarely recommend popular science books but feel I need to make an exception with Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw’s excellent ‘Black Holes – The Key To Understanding The Universe’ published by William Collins.

For me this book surpasses A Brief History of Time, and joins a tiny population of science books that aren’t afraid to delve into some actual mathematics, adding richness and depth to the analogy laden exposition of most popular science books.

Within the pages you’ll find real equations and Penrose diagrams explaining the basics of special and general relativity. These sections will certainly challenge many readers but also equip them for the chapters that follow, when Cox and Forshaw dive into the wonderful abstract world of event horizons, singularities, worm holes, rotating black holes, multiverses and other weird and exotic by products of general relativity and quantum theory.

The material here feels very up to date and references many recent discoveries and theoretical papers. The style is sharp, understandable and with just the right hint of dry humour to keep things light hearted and entertaining.

I accessed the very affordably Kindle version but have enjoyed it so much I’ll be treating myself to a hardback copy – not least because many of the excellent diagrams are in full colour – something my ebook reader can’t reproduce.