In middle age, Barbara Ehrenreich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Ehrenreich and http://barbaraehrenreich.com/) came across the journal she had kept during her tumultuous adolescence and set out to reconstruct that quest, which had taken her to the study of science and through a cataclysmic series of uncanny – or as she later learned to call them, “mystical”-experiences. A staunch atheist and […]
Living with a Wild God Read More »
There is a comparatively new discipline in biology which is ‘Behavioural Ecology’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioural_ecology). It seeks to provide theoretical frameworks to answer questions about animal behaviour especially in relation to ecological context. It has proven to be a highly fruitful and fascinating area of study. The book examines how animals struggle to survive and reproduce. It shows how they exploit
Behavioural Ecology Read More »
There are a number of premises in the town centre of Lanark in which one may place a bet. The bookie seems to be a stable presence on our High Street whilst the activity on online gambling is enormously popular. Both bookies and their clients deal in probabilities, or if you like ‘odds’. What, for
Probability by Hugh Mellor Read More »
Bestseller lists of popular fiction are dominated by established authors, and particularly the latest instalments of their successful series. For example Michael Connelly with Harry Bosch, David Baldacci with John Puller, C J Sansom with Shardlake, and James Patterson with Alex Cross (the latest being the 22nd outing!). It’s therefore quite refreshing to take a
So you’re sitting with your boiled egg, toast and coffee thinking ‘How can I entertain my mind today?’ Ah! plunge myself into a consummately realised 18th-century London of crime, horror and squalor. Excellent. You’ll discover that Tom Hawkins has been luxuriating in the capital’s fleshpots when he’s consigned to the debtors’ prison, Marshalsea. The gruesome murder
The Devil in the Marshalsea Read More »
Dr. Neil MacGregor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_MacGregor and http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/management/directors/neil_macgregor.aspx and ), http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/jan/02/neil-macgregor-british-museum-history Director of the British Museum, offers this sumptuous history of Germany through objects and art. Whilst Germany’s past is too often seen through the prism of the two World Wars, this book investigates a wider six hundred-year-old history of the nation through its objects. It examines the key moments that
Germany: Memories of a Nation Read More »
This appealed to me because it deals with the 5 years immediately preceding my birth. What was going on as I lay ‘mewling and puking’, uncomprehending of the world around? David Kynaston (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kynaston) offers this whopping 880 page social history to set the scene. The late 1950s and early 1960s were a period in their own right: neither
Modernity Britain: 1957-1962 Read More »
This is a big, powerful, compelling and illuminating novel set in West Bengal in the late 1960s from Neel Mukherjee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neel_Mukherjee_(writer) and http://www.neelmukherjee.com/). The book explores power, oppression and rebellion both in the household of the Ghosh family and the society that surrounds it. From its unforgettable and shocking opening to its thought-provoking conclusion, it’s
The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee Read More »
Distinguished academic Marina Warner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Warner and http://www.marinawarner.com/home.html) offers a short history and analysis of the fairy tale. I was alerted to this by the Guardian review (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/20/once-upon-a-time-a-short-history-of-fairy-tale-marina-warner) which turned out to be a splendid summary. What is a fairy tale? Where do they come from and what do they mean? What do they try and communicate to us
Once Upon a Time by Marina Warner Read More »
