 | A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Buy new: £6.23 / Used from: £0.01 Although this is written in a very quirky and journalistic style, Bryson gives a broad and useful account of the history of science (which managed to get me through my science GCSEs)
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 | And the Band Played on: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic (Stonewall Inn Editions) by Randy Shilts
Buy used from: £1.41 A riveting and heartbreaking account of the history of AIDS, with no knowledge of science needed.
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 | A Brief History of Medicine by Paul Strathern
Buy new: £6.91 / Used from: £3.15 Excellent: short and swift but gives a very intelligent overview of how we got to where we are.
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 | Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries (Yale Nota Bene) by M Friedman
Buy new: £7.49 / Used from: £1.41 Written in a friendly way, but there is a lot of actual science in here as it is written by qualified doctors.
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 | Science: A History 1543 - 2001 by John Gribbin
Buy new: £9.07 / Used from: £2.16 Tough. More of a dipping into relevant chapters book.
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 | A History of Surgery by Harold Ellis
Again, a dipping in and out book.
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 | The Knife Man. The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery by Wendy Moore
Buy used from: £7.74 Hunter was a brilliant man (and the Huntarian museum in London is even better)
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 | Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
Buy new: £4.13 / Used from: £0.01 Not only interesting, but gives a good overview of the theory.
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 | A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking
Buy new: £5.74 / Used from: £0.48 Hardly a history, but still a fascinating book with a lot of pure science.
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