Welcome to the Clapham version of life!

The man on the Clapham omnibus is a hypothetical ordinary and reasonable person, used as a standard by the courts in English law. He is fairly well educated and intelligent, but nondescript. If you are Australian, you may know him as the man on the Bondi tram. In other words, your average person.

Also, this is a “join-the-dots” blog. In the book equivalent, a number of dots are arranged apparently haphazardly on a page, but if you join them in a particular sequence, they reveal a picture. In these articles, all the pictures are mine, but the dots, the scientific and historical bits of knowledge, are supplied by other people.

It almost goes without saying, but I trust the dots. They are for the most part the product of a lifetime’s study, occasionally with a dash of genius thrown in. If you doubt a dot, you must take it up with its creator, all of whom are listed, where known. However, if your issue is with the picture, the implications I have imputed to them, then blame me alone.