The story begins 14 billion years ago. Somewhere in a vacuum (one school of thought would have it), a quantum ripple upset the apple cart and – BAM! One-ten-thousand-billionth of a second later a ball of pure energy, 10²⁹ degrees Kelvin, begins its inevitable task, as described by the Standard Model of particle physics, of creating the universe. Energy turns into X and Anti-X particles, which become quarks and leptons, which form nuclei – and slowly a balance is achieved between matter and the mysterious dark matter that holds the galaxies in place.

British science writer John Gribbin is known for his accessible works on complex subjects but he has met his match here. That’s kind of his point, however. As he signposts what is still conjecture, Gribbin crafts thorough explanations from what is known about matter and uses the Standard Model to wind back time and ponder the universe’s birth and childhood.

As Gribbin moves through the history of the universe, there are moments of great excitement and wonder as he explains what scientists think happened 10-13 seconds after the Big Bang and describes how it might all end. Included along the way are: the theory of inflation (which relies on quantum fluctuations during the first moments after time zero to explain the uniformity of the universe and why galaxies exist at all); where our chemical elements came from; how our Solar System was made; and how life on Earth originated about four billion years ago.

There is no happy ending to this story, however. Every biography ends with a death and our universe’s demise is certain, as stars burn out, protons decay and electrons meet positrons then disappear in a flash of gamma rays. Life on Earth will end a long time before then, of course, and human life might well be wiped out by a major extinction, of which there have been five before now (the first, 440 million years ago; the most recent, 65 million years ago). So, let’s enjoy the universe while we can, and a good way to start is by reading this book.