This is an excellent book. Spiegelhalter is great at explaining difficult ideas . Yes, statistics can be difficult. But much less difficult if you read this book.-- The Evening Standard David Spiegelhalter is probably the greatest living statistical communicator ; more than that, he's one of the great communicators in any field. This marvellous book will transform your relationship with the numbers that swirl all around us. Read it and learn. I did.

--Tim Harford, presenter of 'More or Less' and author of 'The Undercover Economist' David Spiegelhalter combines clarity of thinking with superb communication skills and a wealth of experience of applying statistics to everyday problems. The result is The Art of Statistics , a book that manages to be enjoyable as well as informative: an engaging introduction for the lay person who wants to gain a better understanding of statistics. Even those with expertise in statistics will find much within these pages to stimulate the mind and cast new light on familiar topics. A real tour de force which deserves to be widely read. --Dorothy Bishop, Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford If I had to trust just one person to interrogate statistical data, I'd trust David Spiegelhalter. He is a master of the art. Here, he shows us how it's done. The result is brilliant; nothing short of an essential guide to finding things out - delivered through a series of detective-like investigations of specific examples ranging from sexual behaviour to murder .

The technical essentials are also all here: from averages to infographics, algorithms and Bayesian statistics - both their power and their limitations. All this makes The Art of Statistics a first call for all those setting out on a career or study that involves working with data. But beyond that, it's self-help for anyone with a serious desire to become a clued-up citizen in a world of numbers. If you want pat answers, or meat for your prejudices, go elsewhere. But if you want to develop the skills to see the world as it is, and to tell it how it is - honestly and seriously - this is the book .--Michael Blastland, creator of BBC Radio 4's More or Less, and co-author of 'The Tiger That Isn't - Seeing Through a World of Numbers' In this wonderfully accessible introduction to modern statistics, David Spiegelhalter has created a worthy successor to classics such as Moroney's Facts from Figures . Using many real examples, he introduces the methods and underlying concepts, showing the power and elegance of statistics for gaining understanding and for informing decision-making.--David J.

Hand, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College London H.G. Wells is frequently quoted as having said that "Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write." That day has certainly come. This wonderful book provides a non-technical and entertaining introduction to the basic tools of statistical thinking. Wells would have approved. --Professor Sir Adrian Smith FRS, Director, Alan Turing Institute.