Advertisement
Books

How to Read Numbers by Tom Chivers and David Chivers: Light and fun

It’s not easy to make balance sheets and stats fun – Stephen Bush is impressed

How to Read Numbers, the joint work of David Chivers and his cousin, Tom Chivers, is a book that takes on the tricky task  of communicating numbers in letters.

David is an assistant professor of economics at Durham University, while Tom is a science writer and author, including of another excellent book, The Rationalist’s Guide To The Galaxy.

Tom was also one of my superiors when I started out in journalism, so I worried at first that the prospect of reading a book about how journalists misunderstand, mistreat and mangle statistics felt unnervingly like sitting down for a telling-off.

But part of the joy of How To Read Numbers is how light and fun it is.

This is a book by two people who in different ways are well versed in communicating complex subjects in a way that doesn’t make their audiences feel small. (One thing the book does very well is provide the odd optional box in which mathematical concepts you may have known once and forgotten, or simply not known at all, are helpfully explained to aid your journey through it.)

At the end of the process, you’ll be better equipped to understand what it means when a glass of red wine can both increase and decrease your chances of getting cancer, how many portions of fruit and veg you need to eat each day, and any number of stories about numbers you might read or hear.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertisement

The only problem for me is that while How To Read Numbers is a brilliant bit of writing about numbers, they haven’t got me any closer to being able to do it well myself.

Maybe I can persuade the Cousins Chivers to write a sequel called How to Write Numbers.

How to Read Numbers by Tom Chivers and David Chivers is out now (W&N, £12.99)

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

SIGN THE PETITION

It's our call to Keir Starmer to pass a law to end poverty.
big issue vendor holding up a 'we need a poverty zero law' sign

Recommended for you

Read All
The best books to read in summer 2025
Summer books

The best books to read in summer 2025

Women were a huge part of the Gold Rush. Why do we never hear about them?
Women

Women were a huge part of the Gold Rush. Why do we never hear about them?

Top 5 spy books for kids, chosen by Cecily Sawyer author Iona Rangeley
Books

Top 5 spy books for kids, chosen by Cecily Sawyer author Iona Rangeley

Moderation by Elaine Castillo review – modern love story falls short
Books

Moderation by Elaine Castillo review – modern love story falls short

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue