The Man Who Knew Too Much: The life and work of Robert Hooke 1635-1703 by Stephen Inwood, Pan Macmillan, £18.99, ISBN 0333782860
"HE WAS anactive, restless, indefatigable genius" is how the late 17th-century polymath Robert Hooke was described by a contemporary, and so he is presented in Stephen Inwood's book.
Hooke played a pivotal part in the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666. He was a tireless inventor, responsible for such devices as the "Hooke joint", a universal coupling still used today. And he was an important scientist, remembered for Hooke's law describing how springs behave. As Curator of Experiments to the newly founded Royal Society he published
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