Innovation has shaped the modern world - giving us vaccines, clean water, the food on our tables, the internet - and yet is mysteriously difficult to predict or plan.

In this engrossing book, Matt Ridley uncovers the incremental, fortuitous process of development and collaboration that turns a basic invention into a world-changing innovation. Through dozens of intriguing stories, from the creation of fertiliser and steam engines to wheeled luggage and search engines, he explains how we can prevent an innovation famine, and continue to encourage innovation throughout the twenty-first century - and far beyond.