In 1900 a group of sponge divers blown of course in the Mediterranean discovered an Ancient Greek shipwreck dating from around 70 BC. Lying unnoticed for months amongst their hard-won haul was what appeared to be a formless lump of corroded rock, which turned out to be the most stunning scientific artefact we have from […]
Decoding the Heavens Read More »
Beginning with Mt. Vesuvius, whose eruption in Roman times helped spark the science of geology, and ending in a lab in the West of England where mathematical models and lab experiments replace direct observation, Richard Fortey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Fortey) reveals the latest science about ancient geologic processes. He shows how plate tectonics came to rule the geophysical landscape and
The Earth: An Intimate History Read More »
Britain is a meritocracy in which the brightest and most hard working rise to occupy top positions irrespective of background, right? Wrong. Jeremy Paxman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Paxman) has no trouble in relieving you of that fantasy. Friends in High Places (originally published 1991) is a handy chapter-by-chapter guide to the main groupings – politicians, civil servants, academics, the great and the
Friends in High Places by Jeremy Paxman Read More »
Rosalind K. Marshall’s (http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/m/20165/Rosalind%20Kay+MARSHALL.aspx) Queen of Scots, first published in 1986, quickly established itself as a popular account of Mary, the most romantic and tragic of all Scotland’s monarchs. Her dramatic tale owes its immediacy and power to the fact that it is closely based throughout on the original sixteenth-century sources, and tells the story using, wherever
Arno Karlen (May 7, 1937 – May 13, 2010, http://antiochcollege.org/news/obituaries/2453.html) was an American poet, psychoanalyst, and in particular, popular science writer. He won the 1996 Rhone-Poulenc Prize for science books with Plague’s Progress which deals with the relationship between Man and disease. Terrible diseases have wreaked havoc on human life since the dawn of history.
The successor to Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Enlai), made a famous remark when asked what he considered to be the consequences of The French Revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Enlai). He replied – ‘It’s too early to say’. I think we can safely say that the consequences have been deep and widespread. There is a huge industry of historical
The Oxford History of The French Revolution Read More »
The story of The American War of Independence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_war_of_independence) has usually been told in terms of a conflict between blundering British generals and their rigidly disciplined red-coated troops on the one side, and heroic American patriots in their homespun shirts and coonskin caps on the other. In this fresh, compelling narrative, Christopher Hibbert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hibbert and http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/27/obituary-christopher-hibbert-historian) portrays the
Redcoats and Rebels Read More »
Nelson DeMille (www.nelsondemille.net) was born in New York City in 1943. He grew up on Long Island and graduated from Hofstra University with a degree of Political Science and History. After serving as an infantry officer in Vietnam, where he was decorated three times, DeMille worked as a journalist and short story writer. He wrote his
Finlay J MacDonald was born and brought up on Harris, in the Outer Hebrides. As a child he spoke only Gaelic while the village schoolteacher spoke only English. His account of pre-war life on Harris was later to be published, in English, in a trilogy of books: ‘Crowdie and Cream‘ (1982); ‘Crotal and White’ (1983); and ‘The Corncrake
