From his earliest days, Oliver Sacks - the distinguished neurologist and remarkable storyteller - was irresistibly drawn to understanding the natural world. As the Second World War broke out he was evacuated from London to a school that rivalled Dickens's grimmest; tormented by the headmaster, he felt desolate and abandoned. He was a changed, withdrawn boy when he returned to London, aged ten. He was sustained by his secret passions: for numbers, for metals and for finding patterns in the world around him. Under the tutelage of his "chemical" uncle, Uncle Tungsten, Sacks began to experiment with chemicals creating bangs, stinks and bellows of smoke - the beginnings of an extraordianry and original mind.