Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms Essays on Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould (Vintage, £7.99 in UK)

For 20 years Gould has written a column for the US magazine, Natural History, and this is his latest collection, the eighth of a sequence of 10 according to the author. Gould describes himself as a "humanistic naturalist" who struggles towards an understanding of natural history which allows for the interference of human interpretation. But forget the themes, sit back and relish the richness of the thought, the elegance of the prose. He meanders through art and science, human prehistory and his great love and bedrock, the daily reality of evolution and its processes. He engages the reader immediately whatever his subject matter - from the hump on the back of the Great Irish Elk to the sexual machinery of the clam. These essays provide a useful entry point for non-scientific readers unfamiliar with Gould who are willing to be captivated by a great scientific mind.