Defeat and demolish your family and friends!

How to win games and beat people

Discover the real ways to win every game imaginable!

Tom Whipple’s little red book is the tome to tuck into your weekend bag if you know you’re going be Monopolised or Scrabbled

Tom Whipple is the science editor at The Times. He covers everything from archaeology to zoology. He writes news, features, reviews and commentary across the paper, as well as appearing regularly on Times Radio. He joined the paper in 2006, shortly after graduating with a degree in mathematics. 
During the course of his job he has visited the tunnels below Cern and the top of Mont Blanc above it. He has seen the inside of the world's hottest sauna and the world's most irradiated nature reserve. He has interviewed Stephen Hawking and Jedward. He has been arrested in three different countries. 
As well as The Times, he has written for the Guardian and The Economist. He was named science journalist of the year for his coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Are you fed up losing at family board game nights? Do you want to learn how to destroy the competition? 
 
Get the inside tips from preposterously overqualified experts on how to win a range of common family games, board games and more. 
 
* A mime artist tells you how to do the best charades 
* A mathematician tells you how to win Connect 4 
* A professional racing driver tells you how to take corners in Scalextric 
* A Scrabble champion reveals his secrets 
* A game theorist tells you what properties to buy in Monopoly in order to bankrupt and embarrass your competitors. 
 
This is a must read for anyone who takes games too seriously and for bad losers everywhere.

Tom Whipple

Many histories claim without justification that their particular area of study changed the course of the Second World War. Whipple's deeply researched and engagingly written account of the secret science of radar is, by contrast, a genuine contender.

The struggle for electronic supremacy, the so-called battle of the beams, is enthrallingly recreated by Tom Whipple in a book that has the pace and style of a well-crafted thriller.

The gripping true story of a war fought in the shadows. From critical strategic decisions made in Whitehall to daring special forces operations behind enemy lines, Tom Whipple has vividly brought to life a scientific arms race that would determine the outcome of the war. Chock full of memorable characters and written with all the drama and pace of a Robert Harris thriller, The Battle of the Beams reminds us that both brains and brawn were required to stay ahead of a sophisticated and dangerous enemy. Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear lab coats.

Told with humour, the science is easy to understand in this tribute to a war without weapons.

Decoding the science in a digestible way for readers, The Battle of the Beams is a fantastic way into to a less discussed period of World War Two history.

An extremely well-researched and readable account, full of fascinating, anecdotal evidence of how, almost single handedly, the young radio scientist, RV Jones, worked out how the Germans were painting the night skies over Britain with electromagnetic crosses, enabling them to drop their bombs with accuracy. Highly recommend.

Tales to delight and excite ... A highly enjoyable account of a largely forgotten slice of wartime history.

An account of real-life WWII technology is as engaging as a thriller and provides a 'howdunit' rather than a 'whodunit'. Excellent.

The secret science of radar that turned the tide of the Second World War

'Deeply researched and engagingly written' The Times 
'Has the pace and style of a well-crafted thriller' Mail on Sunday 
'Chock full of memorable characters and written with all the drama and pace of a Robert Harris thriller' Rowland White, author of Mosquito 
 
Summer 1939. War is coming. The British believe that, through ingenuity and scientific prowess, they alone have a war-winning weapon: radar. They are wrong. The Germans have it too. 
 
They believe that their unique maritime history means their pilots have no need of navigational aids. They are wrong. Most of the bombs the RAF will drop in the first years of the war land miles from their target. 
 
They also believe that the Germans, without the same naval tradition, will never be able to find targets at night. They are, again, wrong. 
 
In 1939 the Germans don't just have radar to spot planes entering their airspace, they have radio beams to guide their own planes into enemy airspace. 
 
This war will be fought on land and sea and in the air, but it will also be fought on the airwaves. It will be fought between scientists on both sides at the forefront of knowledge, and the agents and commandos they relied on to bolster that knowledge. Thanks to one young engineer, Reginald Jones, the British develop radar technology that went on to help the Allies win the war. 
 
Relying on first-hand accounts from Reginald Jones as well as papers recently released by the Admiralty, The Battle of the Beams fills a huge missing piece in the canon of World War II literature. It is a tale that combines history, science, derring do and dogged determination and will appeal as much to fans of World War II history as to those fascinated by the science behind the beams that changed our lives. 
 
The radio war of 1939-45 is one of the great scientific battles in history. This is the story of that war.

Tom Whipple

Praise for The Battle of the Beams

Many histories claim without justification that their particular area of study changed the course of the Second World War. Whipple's deeply researched and engagingly written account of the secret science of radar ...

The struggle for electronic supremacy, the so-called battle of the beams, is enthrallingly recreated by Tom Whipple in a book that has the pace and style of a well-crafted thriller.

The gripping true story of a war fought in the shadows. From critical strategic decisions made in Whitehall to daring special forces operations behind enemy lines, Tom Whipple has vividly brought to life a ...

Many histories claim without justification that their particular area of study changed the course of the Second World War. Whipple's deeply researched and engagingly written account of the secret science of radar ...

The struggle for electronic supremacy, the so-called battle of the beams, is enthrallingly recreated by Tom Whipple in a book that has the pace and style of a well-crafted thriller.

The gripping true story of a war fought in the shadows. From critical strategic decisions made in Whitehall to daring special forces operations behind enemy lines, Tom Whipple has vividly brought to life a ...

Many histories claim without justification that their particular area of study changed the course of the Second World War. Whipple's deeply researched and engagingly written account of the secret science of radar ...

The struggle for electronic supremacy, the so-called battle of the beams, is enthrallingly recreated by Tom Whipple in a book that has the pace and style of a well-crafted thriller.

The gripping true story of a war fought in the shadows. From critical strategic decisions made in Whitehall to daring special forces operations behind enemy lines, Tom Whipple has vividly brought to life a ...

Books by Tom Whipple

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