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If you’re struggling to think of something original to give to your nearest and dearest for Christmas, perhaps Science Café can help as – in a tradition now as well-established as a plateful of mince pies and the Dr. Who Christmas Special, our annual book review is here to suggest some mind-expanding stocking-fillers.

This year Adam is joined by mathematician Dr. Jeffrey Giansiracusa from Swansea University and ecologist Prof. John Warren at Aberystwyth University. Jeffrey, John and Adam each suggest a favourite popular science book, to engage, entertain, even astonish through those long winter nights.

Their choices are the biography of an extraordinary Indian mathematical genius; three entertaining and provocative essays by physicist and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynmann  and a boozy guide to every plant you could ever possibly turn into alcohol :

• ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity – A Life Of The Genius Ramanujan’ by Robert Kanigel (Abacus Press)

• ‘The Meaning Of It All’ by Richard Feynmann (Penguin Books)

• ‘The Drunken Botanist’ by Amy Stewart (Timber Press)