How do teachers we convince students that studying algebra and trigonometry is worthwhile? How do we show them the methods with the conviction that these are the building blocks of something ever greater, dynamic and full of prospect? We turn to the time that that mathematics was it - the latest thing, the cutting edge! The history of mathematics is the way to make it real. 

This week we reissue Images of Infinity - first published in the 1980s - and written by Dik Tahta and Ray Hemmings. We've updated some elements of the book and there is a Foreword by Alf Coles. I met Dik before his death, but many will not know of him directly and not know of his work, except perhaps as that teacher..."Thanks to Mr Tahta, I became a professor of mathematics at Cambridge, a position once held by Isaac Newton" ...Stephen Hawking.