Some time ago I wrote of the contrasting understandings of those who need to “see what you mean” and those who can “hear what you say”, an insight of neurolinguistic programming theory. It came to mind when I approached two classics of popular science, A Briefer History of Time (Random House, 4 CDs, 4hrs 30mins, £16.99, offer £15.29) Stephen Hawking’s update of A Brief History of Time and The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life (Orion, 7 CDs, 9hrs, £19.99, £17.99), Richard Dawkins on evolution.

Dawkins’s argument is leavened with such bizarre delights as “The Brine Shrimp’s Tale” and “The Barnacle’s Tale”, read by his wife, the actor Lalla Ward. But, perhaps because I prefer word pictures to theorising, the combination of his reasoning and Ward’s clipped vowels proved too English. I kept losing concentration.

It was a relief to feel far less stupid listening to Erik Davies’ enthusiastic projection of Hawking’s enjoyably vivid story of man’s understanding of the cosmos.

And when you have improved your mind with these, treat yourself to the wisely foolish alternative view of Douglas Adams, now presented in a snazzy cube containing every episode of the radio series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (BBC, 14 CDs, 14hrs 45mins, £80, £72).

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