The Hemlock Cup by Bettany Hughes

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think, PAST PRESENT - What's new in History

Bettany Hughes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettany_Hughes) has been gracing our TV screens since 2012 presenting the history of the classical world. Her programme ‘Genius of the Ancient World – Socrates‘ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2015/32/socrates-genius-of-the-ancient-world) was broadcast on 12 August 2015 on BBC 4. Whether to follow up the programme or in preparation for a second viewing I would recommend her 2010 book The […]

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Pretty Girls

CRIMINALLY MINDED - Tales of the behaviourally challenged

Karin Slaughter (http://www.karinslaughter.com/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karin_Slaughter) is a pretty useful name to have for a girl who writes crime fiction. She has sold 30 million copies of her gripping psychological crime fiction and is published in 32 languages. Slaughter is a passionate defender of public libraries against the philistines who are ignoring them and running them down

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Hearts of Stone

FANTASTIC FICTION - Escapes to other places and other times

Simon Scarrrow (http://www.scarrow.co.uk/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Scarrow) is best known for his Eagle series of Roman military fiction set in the territories of the Roman Empire, covering the second invasion of Britain and the subsequent prolonged campaign undertaken by the rump of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. To date there are thirteen books in the series, with the 13th released in

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Postcapitalism by Paul Mason

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think

Journalist Paul Mason (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mason_(journalist)#Books) has become familiar to us in recent months on TV news reports about the Greek debt crisis, and the possibility of Greece crashing out of the Eurozone. His open necked engaging style is delivered with a distinctive Lancashire accent. The author of four previous books on politics and economics, he now

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The Wrong Girl

CRIMINALLY MINDED - Tales of the behaviourally challenged, FANTASTIC FICTION - Escapes to other places and other times

Laura Wilson (http://www.laura-wilson.co.uk/website/) grew up in London and studied English Literature at University College London. She has written history about many different periods for children before turning to historical crime fiction, where she concentrates on the recent past. Her fifth novel, The Lover, set during the London Blitz, won the French Prix du Polar Europeen in

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God’s Traitors by Jessie Childs

PAST PRESENT - What's new in History

Lively interest in the Tudor and Elizabethan ages have been stimulated in recent years by the histories and popularisations of David Starkey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Starkey) and Hilary Mantel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Mantel). Should you wish to immerse yourself further into this world you’ll find an excellent new book in God’s Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England.  The Catholics of Elizabethan England

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Trilobite!

EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE - Science & Technology

Before retirement Richard Fortey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Fortey) was Professor of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum. He is a world expert on the trilobites, a group of ancient marine arthropods resembling woodlice which roamed the oceans for almost 300 million years. That’s three thousand times longer than Homo Sapiens have so far been on the planet. The study of these creatures has contributed hugely

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