I have always loved maths. Well, that's not strictly true. I didn't love maths before I was born and I didn't love it when I was one year old. But once I started doing it at school and ever since then, I have. First time I had a sabbatical year (after 10 years in post), one of the things I did with it was to take a maths course two evenings a week. So... I'm with Marcus du Sautoy when he talks about the subject grabbing the imagination and about ways of teaching it that might make it (even) more interesting.
On the other hand, one has to face the fact that different minds are differently predisposed, and that some subjects won't appeal to some people more or less however they (the subjects) are taught. I never could get on with economics, and I don't believe that was due to the way it was put across during my time as an undergraduate. It just didn't spark. Du Sautoy thinks that more about the history of maths and about its 'wonderful dramatis personae' might make it more appealing to some children. Maybe; it's certainly worth a try. But if the 'internal' appeal, the pull of the logical relationships, isn't there for someone, it's not clear that the history and the personalities will change this.
It's like: there are people (can you imagine!) whom nothing on earth will persuade that they could come to take an interest in cricket; there are others who think the same way about opera.