Andrew Wheen

Andrew Wheen's first book (Dot-Dash to Dot.Com: How modern telecommunications evolved from the telegraph to the Internet) combines his addiction to popular science books with a love of history. The book describes how the invention of the electric telegraph paved the way for telephone networks which, in turn, laid the foundations for today's Internet. In less than 170 years, simple arrangements of magnets, switches and cables evolved to become the largest and most complex machine in the world.

Dr Wheen has worked in the telecommunications and broadcasting industries since 1982, and combines an encyclopaedic knowledge of how networks work with a talent for explaining complex ideas in simple terms. He is married with two children, and lives near London.