The Turk by Tom Standage

In the autumn of 1796, Wolfgang von Kempelen was invited by the empress of Austria-Hungary to provide a scientific component to the audience of a magic show performed at her court. Unimpressed by the magician's performance he offered to better it, an action which led to the creation of a machine which stunned and amazed audiences for more than two centuries. The machine, a clockwork chess-playing automaton, became known as 'The Mechanical Turk' and Standage has created the definitive chronicle of its career.

Anyone that has read one of Standage's books before will recognise his trademark style. The account of 'the Turk' is only half the tale, the rest consisting of tangents that encompass some of the most important historical characters in the 211 years since the machine's creation.

Flooded with a humour that never detracts from the affection the author has for his subject, the book has barely a line that doesn't inform or entertain (and usually both). The parallels to contemporary wonder at inexplicable new gadgets are never missed and, as a reader, one is left with the feeling that Arthur C Clarke's famous adage that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" has been thoroughly proved.