Part I Introduction -- Why is statistics such a fascinating subject? -- How statistics differs from mathematics -- Statistical literacy- essential in the 21st century -- Statistical inquiry on the web -- Part II Statistical description -- Trustworthy statistics are accurate, meaningful and relevant -- Let's hear it for the standard deviation! -- Index numbers- time travel for averages -- The beguiling ways of bad statistics I -- The beguiling ways of bad statistics II -- Part III Preliminaries to inference -- Puzzles and paradoxes in probability -- Some paradoxes of randomness -- Hidden risks for gamblers -- Models in statistics -- The normal distribution: history, computation and curiosities -- Part IV Statistical inference -- The pillars of applied statistics- estimation -- The pillars of applied statistics- hypothesis testing -- 'Data snooping' and the significance level in multiple testing -- Francis Galton and the birth of regression -- Experimental design- piercing the veil of random variation -- In praise of Bayes -- Part V Some statistical byways -- Quality in statistics -- History of ideas: statistical personalities and the personalities of statisticians -- Statistical eponymy -- Statistical 'laws' -- Statistical artefacts -- Part VI Answers -- Answers to the chapter questions.