Einstein, The Girl Who Hated Maths
From the mysterious power of the decimal point to the oddity of odd numbers, fun and wonder are the essence of these remarkable poems. The winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry takes us through the delight and silliness maths has to offer.
Subjects range from the title poem in which Einstein's number-loving parents persuade her of the fun they have with maths, to poems about the magic number nine, the power of the decimal point, and the ancient Inca counting device the Quipo.
John Agard was born in Guyana and emigrated to Britain in 1977. He has worked as an actor and a performer with a jazz group and spent several years with the Commonwealth Institute, travelling all over Britain giving talks, performances and workshops. He has visited literally thousands of schools.
His poem 'Half-caste' is on the AQA English GCSE syllabus, and every year he tours the country performing with other top poets for GCSE students. His children's poetry includes WE ANIMALS WOULD LIKE A WORD WITH YOU, POINTS OF VIEW WITH PROFESSOR PEEKABOO, and most recently EINSTEIN, THE GIRL WHO HATED MATHS and HELLO H2O, poems about maths and science respectively. All these titles have been in collaboration with the illustrator Satoshi Kitamura
He lives in Sussex and is married to Grace Nichols, herself a respected Caribbean poet. They have a daughter.