From the author of Stuart: A Life Backwards; a warm & witty portrait of a harmless eccentric bona fide genius. Alexander Masters landlord Simon lives in the basement of their Cambridge house. Between teetering towers of outdated maps & slagheaps of plastic bags Simon eats endless meals of tinned kippers & plans trips on the Cambridge public transport system. But Simon was one of the greatest mathematical prodigies of the twentieth century. He spends his time between train journeys working on a theoretical puzzle so complex & critical to our understanding of the universe that it is known as the Monster. Poignant & comical Simon: The Genius in my Basement is about the frailty of brilliance & how genius matters very little in the search for happiness.