About the author

Daniel Tammet is an essayist, poet, novelist and translator. His latest book is How to be ‘Normal’. He is also the author of Portraits, Every Word is A Bird We Teach to Sing, Thinking in Numbers, Embracing the Wide Sky, and the New York Times bestseller Born On A Blue Day. Tammet is Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He lives in Paris.

Read more about the author.

About his work

"Tammet's intriguing cases of linguistic idiosyncrasies expand our notions on what it means to be human ... most fascinating is Tammet's own astonishing linguistic mind, in which a single word evokes fully textured experiences--an innate ability that would dazzle any storyteller in love with words and their deepest meanings."

Excerpt of a review of Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing, Amy Tan, 2017. Find out more about this book.

Books

Cover of How to be Normal
How to be ‘Normal’ - Notes on the Eccentricities of Modern Life

Have you ever wondered how neurotypicals – so called ‘normal’ people – come across to those who are on the autistic spectrum? These short essays come together in a beautifully written, sometimes humorous but always refreshing narrative that focuses on the eccentricities of modern life as seen through the eyes of someone always on the outside.

Cover of Fragments de paradis
Fragments de paradis

Élevé dans un milieu non croyant, Daniel Tammet raconte sa conversion au christianisme à l’âge adulte. Quels épisodes de l’enfance, quelles rencontres, quels échanges ont été déterminants? Peut-on réconcilier la foi et la raison? Comment partager une expérience aussi indicible?

Cover of Portraits
Portraits

Every existence, be it famous or anonymous, contains unfailingly its share of poetry. It is what Daniel Tammet demonstrates in these loving and finely wrought portraits which ponder the mystery and the beauty of our humanity. Jérôme Tabet's photographs capture the vivacity of these tales while giving free rein to the reader's imagination.

 
Cover of Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing
Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing

Is vocabulary destiny? Why do clocks "talk" to the Nahua people of Mexico? Will A.I. researchers ever produce true human-machine dialogue? In this mesmerizing collection of essays, Daniel Tammet answers these and many other questions about the intricacy and profound power of language.

Montage of covers of Born on a Blue Day
Born on a Blue Day

Daniel sees numbers as shapes, colours and textures and can perform extraordinary maths in his head. He can also learn to speak a language fluently from scratch in a week. He has Savant Syndrome, an extremely rare form of Asperger's that gives him almost unimaginable mental powers.

Montage of covers of Thinking in Numbers
Thinking in Numbers

Inspired by the complexity of snowflakes, Anne Boleyn's sixth finger or his mother's unpredictable behaviour, Tammet explores questions such as why time seems to speed up as we age, whether there is such a thing as an average person and how we can make sense of those we love.

 
Montage of covers of Embracing the Wide Sky
Embracing the Wide Sky

Embracing the Wide Sky is a unique and brilliantly imaginative portrait of how we think, learn, remember and create, brimming with personal insights and anecdotes, and explanations of the most up-to-date, mind-bending discoveries from fields ranging from neuroscience to psychology and linguistics.

Cover of C’est une chose sérieuse que d’être parmi les hommes
C’est une chose sérieuse que d’être parmi les hommes

Une œuvre puissante pressentie chaque année pour le prix Nobel de littérature, traduite pour la première fois en France. Daniel Tammet présente quarante des plus beaux poèmes de Les Murray, qu'il commente et traduit pour la première fois en français.

Cover of Mishenka
Mishenka

Moscou, mars 1960. En Union soviétique, les échecs sont un sport national et le champion du monde, Maxim Koroguine, est le héros du régime. Avec lui, le jeu d'échecs est devenu une science de la logique. Surgit alors un jeune prodige de 23 ans, Mikhail Gelb, surnommé Mishenka, romantique et imprévisible.