That now vnto despaire I gin to growe, And meane for better winde about to throwe.

And Wallander’s bleak but unresigned despair is reflected in wind-swept, fog-choked Ystad, a Baltic seaside town near Malmo.

Not that Martin is a sun-bleached hippie philosopher, but his book is a head-trip as well as a hugely entertaining travel adventure along the eccentric orbits of cosmological research.

In the preindustrial era the burden of housework fell on the shoulders of every inhabitant of the house: men, women, and children all devoted their energies and time to work in the home and on the farms, because most Americans were involved with at least some of their own food production.