Alexander Masters on the Genius in his Basement

Alexander Masters is the author of Stuart: a Life Backwards, the critically acclaimed book about a homeless man called Stuart Shorter who he met while studying at Cambridge University and working in a homeless shelter. It won the Guardian First Book Award and was chosen as a World Book Night Title. He wrote the television adaptation of the book—a joint BBC/HBO venture from Sam Mendes’ studio. His new book is "an intimate portrait of an everyday genius". It is the biography of the reclusive Simon Philips Norton, one of the greatest mathematical prodigies of the twentieth century.