Michael Cook earns his name with this recipe to an exquisite three-course meal of genetics, geography and legend, with a philosophy chaser. Toted as a good history for scientists to read, I was intrigued enough to take the advice and was immediately out there with Cook on his tempestuous voyages around the globe.

He starts his treatise with a gentle probing question of what exactly history is, and has a dig at traditional archaeology, for its Western bias. His opening volley question 'Why did history happen when it did?' was followed up by the intriguing 'Is this the only history possible?' Before any philosophical comfort zone can settle, Mr Cook hits us with a surprisingly concrete answer, and a geophysical reading as to where good answers may be excavated by an armchair Time Team.

He then takes us on a detailed and invigoratingly cross-referenced analysis of the main regions of the planet, ensuring that the factors which determine the growth and downfall of civilisations are vividly portrayed. The fact that he starts with Australia does do something for my sense of the proper order of things, but admittedly that is not entirely unrelated to my own origin.

Well referenced and thoroughly convincing in fact and anecdote, this book is a triumph of scientific summary.