Dirac's achievements as a theoretical physicist were clearly remarkable. However, his personality, as the title of Graham Farmelo's book implies, was very odd indeed. Upon meeting him one soon discovered (if one had not been forewarned) that he had no small talk and little appreciation of other people's. Irony was foreign to him. His utterances were few and far between, and their main function was to communicate information about matters that were important to him, such as theoretical physics. The many mismatches between his style of communication and that of most other people gave rise to a large number of humorous anecdotes, many of which are quoted in this book.
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