One Good Turn A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw by Witold Rybczynski (Simon & Schuster, £9.99).

THE aim here, one hazards a guess, is to emulate Dava Sobel (Longitude), Mark Kurlansky (Cod) and Larry Zuckerman (The Potato).

In other words, to take what appears to be one of the most boring of subjects and turn it into a top-selling book.

A request to write an article for the New York Times about the best tool of the last millennium was all it needed to set Rybczynski on this course.

Ferreting through his tool box for a whole week (oh, to have so large a tool box!) sent him into a fervour of indecision.

Should he choose a try square, a bevel, a chalk line or a plumb bob? No. They have all been around for more than a thousand years.

He dithered over the tape measure he'd be lost without his 25ft retractable; almost chose the "unexciting" carpenter's brace, but then his wife suggested the screwdriver and thoughts immediately turned to the one he'd once bought for his father with a built-in flashlight.

If, at this point, you imagine this is a tale of Pythonesque proportions, then... you're in for a disappointment.

It isn't a rivetting read, nor is it a page turner, but it is a fascinating little opus, though perhaps sadly for Mr R, not in the Longitude mode.

David Chapman