Richard Feynman was (and still is, after his death) well known amongst physics for his work on quantum electrodynamics, and also for his communications skills, wit and love of fun. In 1962 he was persuaded to give a series of basic physics lectures to students at Caltech. These were subsequently written down and published. This book is a selection of six of the chapters from that book. The chapters cover Atoms in motion (looking at changes of state, molecules, chemical reactions etc), Basic Physics (the scientific method, the four fundamental forces, quantum physics and nuclei and particles), the Relation of Physics to Other Sciences (what it says!), Conservation of Energy (including different forms of energy), The Theory of Gravitation (including relativity), and Quantum Behaviour.

The copy of the book I have comes complete with a glowing foreward by Paul Davies (a physicist and writer), and equally glowing comments on the back from various newspapers. I am not quite so sure... The explanations are lucid and clear, but it belts along at a great rate. I knew most of what is in the book (until it gets too deep into particle physics or quantum behaviour, at least), but I do wonder how well someone new to the material would cope. It is also out of date. This is quite entertaining now and then (when he says that what causes volcanoes and earthquakes is not understood, it reminds us how young plate tectonics is a scientific theory). However in the parts of the book that are the strangest to me, quantum behaviour, I wonder whether I am missing out on discoveries made since these lectures were given. Whether, in fact, some of it may be wrong because later work has changed ideas. So I would say read this for interest, or to remind yourself of things you once knew but may have forgotten, but if you want a basic grounding in physics you can probably find other books that will lead you through things a little more gently.