It is always pleasing to read good reviews but the nicest thing that anyone has said to me about this book was “Jonathan, you would have loved this book when you were at school…”.

Quantum theory is a profoundly important physical theory, not just due to its roll in providing the modern understanding of vast tracts of physics, but for the way in which it challenges our philosophical understanding of reality. In my own experience, the teaching of quantum theory focussed on the mathematical apparatus and seldom devoted any time to its physical interpretation. Well, in my view physics reduces to just a numbers game without some form of physical interpretation. Quantum theory challenges some of our basic conceptions about reality, which is such an important issue it should not be left just to the professionals.

I set out to write a book that explained how the mathematical theory worked in outline, using as little mathematics as possible, and then explored the various interpretations that have grown up.

One thing that I feel strongly about is that the conventional road to quantum field theory does not develop an understanding of the links to identical particles and so does not help illuminate the wave/particle duality issue as much as it might. I was delighted to find others that agreed with me and so was able to write about this with some confidence leaning on their work.