Science mania: read all about it

WHO WANTS to read about imaginary heroes when you can thrill to the story of the tulip, reread a page-turner about a chronometer or devour the history of an eastern spice?

Publishers and booksellers agree that narrative non-fiction is becoming increasingly popular, marking out the trend started by Dava Sobel's Longitude as one of the key changes in publishing of the Nineties.

Relating what would once have been a dry scientific, botanical or zoological history through a racy narrative with plot development, climax and adventure is undoubtedly the central part of the genre's success. But what also count is the way they sell them.

The packaging - slim, narrow hardbacks manageably small both in size and volume of words - has been part of the appeal. Longitude, the story of John Harrison's invention and development of an instrument to help sailors to navigate, was compact, easy to handle and started the trend for slightly cheaper hardbacks at pounds 12.

The Tulip, by Anna Pavord, bucks an aspect of that trend, being very large and costing pounds 30, but is a lavishly illustrated, richly detailed narrative of the history of the flower, as informative about "tulipmania", when a tulip bulb could be exchanged for a house alongside the canal, as it is about the Huguenots.

The books have historical themes, but impart information about the era or succession of eras by tracing the progress of an arcane object or phenomenon rather than a political development. Having said that, a number of narrative non- fictions tend to have in common an almost stirringly romantic tale of determined ambition, be it to invent, trade or make a scientific breakthrough. Harrison's battle with the scientific establishment of the day in Longitude is as crucial to keeping the reader's interest as descriptions of his timepieces. The scholarly has become romantic.

Dava Sobel's Longitude has sold 630,000 copies in the United Kingdom alone. Other praised examples of the genre include Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh, the story of the struggle to solve a 17th- century mathematical puzzle; Janet Gleeson's The Arcanum, about the invention of porcelain; Michael Allin's Zarafa, the story of a giraffe's journey from the African plains to early 19th-century Paris; Cod by Mark Kurlansky, a history of the fish; and the soon-to-be-published Nathaniel's Nutmeg by Giles Milton, the story of how a forgotten British hero, Nathaniel Courthorpe, fought the Dutch in the 17th century for control of a tiny spice island in the East Indies to trade in nutmeg when it was the most valuable commodity in the world.

Last week, The Elegant Universe by Jonathan Greene, a physicist, was published in Britain. An exploration of "string theory", its American edition outsold the latest John Grisham thriller for three days last week through the Internet distributor Amazon.

And now Pavord's bestseller The Tulip will be followed later this year by another exploration of the flower by the writer Mike Dash and a novel featuring tulips by Deborah Moggach.

Nigel Newton, managing director of Bloomsbury, said: "The British have always been obsessed with biographies. Perhaps our interest in people, the great figures who shaped history, is now transferring into an interest in things."

Another narrative non-fiction bestseller has been The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger, tracing the plight of fishing boats in a savage gale off the New England coast and informing about fishing, boat construction and weather patterns in a gripping narrative. Last year also saw Man Flies by Nancy Winters, a look at the pioneering of balloon flight by the Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont in the early years of the century.

Again it was a tale of personal struggle alongside technical information. Soon after his success, Santos-Dumont contracted multiple sclerosis and committing suicide.

Noel Murphy, production manager of the bookshop chain Waterstone's, said: "The key is it is history made approachable. Most of these books are brightly coloured. The Tulip is a good example. You could write a very dry tome about the economic impact. But this drives the reader forward."

Perhaps there is another advantage to the genre. Derek John, a director of the literary agency A P Watt, said: "I do wonder whether the demand for these compact, exquisitely written books is partly due to people having shorter attention spans in an overloaded culture."

THE ARCANE WORLD OF BRITAIN'S MOST UNLIKELY BESTSELLERS

The Tulip

Longitude

AUTHOR

Anna Pavord

PUBLISHER

Bloomsbury (pounds 30)

PLOT

Deals with the phenomenon of Tulipmania in Dutch history; but Tulipmania is now also affecting the book's publishers. Next month Bloomsbury will put on sale a set of postcards drawn from illustrations in the book

THE CRITICS SAID...

"Written by a scholar, reads like a thriller. It is a passionate masterpiece."

Dava Sobel

Fourth Estate (pounds 12)

The first of the genre, and the first to show its scope. Now also a coffee table book. It is John Harrison's chronometer - its subject - that makes Delboy and Rodney's fortune in the final episodes of Only Fools And Horses

"True-life thriller packed with political intrigue, international warfare, personal feuds and political skulduggery."

Cod

Mark Kurlansky

Jonathan Cape (pounds 12.99)

The thousand-year story of the pursuit of the species - from the Vikings to Captain Birdseye - and how it expanded cultures half way across the globe, causing conflicts over fishing grounds that continue to this day

"Reveals the importance of this wonderful fish in world history. An epitaph and a warning."

The Arcanum

Janet Gleeson

Bantam (pounds 12.99)

Centres on the first European porcelain factory at Meissen and Johann Friederich Bottger, a chemist obsessed with the Arcanum: how to turn base metal into gold. This leads to the discovery of the Arcanum for white gold: porcelain

"Mastery of a technically tricky subject, but fails to take us with her into the furnaces at Meissen."

The Elegant Universe

Brian Greene

Jonathan Cape (pounds 18.99)

The string theory or super string theory as it is sometimes called is said to be the most difficult in physics. The author first became obsessed with it when he was at Oxford University

"Not since Stephen Hawking has a scientific book caused such a stir."