'The Infinite Monkey Cage' radio show tie-in to William Collins

Professor Brian Cox and the team behind BBC Radio 4’s "The Infinite Monkey Cage" have signed a book deal with William Collins.

The witty, irreverent look at the world through a scientist’s eyes will be turned into a book called How to Build a Universe – An Infinite Monkey Cage Annual after publishing director Myles Archibald bought world rights in a multilateral deal with the BBC, Sue Rider and Charlie Viney.

Written by presenters Professor Brian Cox and Robin Ince and producer Alexandra Feachem, the book will be a celebration of the great and the good of British science.

The radio programme has won several awards and is BBC Radio 4’s most successful comedy and popular science series, according to the publisher.

“From the grand and bizarre ideas conjured up by the human imagination to the nitty gritty of dark matter and consciousness via neutrinos and earthworms, the book promises to be as unique, witty and accessible as the series itself,” the publisher said.
Cox said: “The Infinite Monkey Cage is an audio representation of the absurdity of nature prevented from collapse by the scaffolding of reason. Whether it can survive in book form is theoretically uncertain, so we decided the only option is to conduct the experiment. This book will be the result.”

Ince added: “For ten years I have been interrupting Brian during his equations, it is exciting to think that finally I can jumble his equations in print.  It will be a mixture of hard science (Brian's speciality) and facetiousness, stupidity and childish curiosity (something I've been working on for 48 years).”

The book will be published for the Christmas market in October 2017.