'A delight and triumph ... A thing of beauty ... Truly, truly magical' talkRADIO Look up on a clear evening, and you'll see thousands of stars shining in the night sky, each telling a story of their own. With star maps to help easily identify key celestial bodies, astronomer Giles Sparrow takes 21 stars (and three imposters) to look at what each pinprick of light can tell us about the birth, life and death of our universe. From red giants to supernovae and from stellar cities to our own Sun, The History of Our Universe in 21 Stars shows how the lights we see in the sky can help us unravel the mysteries of the cosmos.

Beautifully illustrated, The History of Our Universe in 21 Stars provides a key to the cosmos for the curious, the busy and the bewildered. It offers a complete introduction to the heavens through the tales of these celestial superstars and tells the intriguing, inspiring and sometimes just plain odd story of how stargazers unravelled the mysteries of the universe.