News and reviews

Climate in Motion reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement

Added on 17/09/2019

In her captivating new book, Climate in Motion, [Deborah] Coen shows how, in the Austro-Hungarian empire in the nineteenth century, the field of dynamic climatology had already evolved ways of accounting for problems of multiple …

The Walls Have Ears featured in the Daily Express

Added on 16/09/2019

The story of the captured [German] generals and intelligence revealed by the covert surveillance has been highlighted by a new book, The Walls Have Ears. Historian Helen Fry interviewed Eric [Mark] and combed through thousands of …

The Clamour of Nationalism featured in the Guardian

Added on 16/09/2019

Since the Brexit referendum, the EU, especially among liberals, has often been held up as the antidote to nationalism. Yet for all its laudable aims – and its successes in reducing conflict between states – it plays host to its own …

McCann’s Wild Sea reviewed in History Today

Added on 10/09/2019

The strength of McCann’s account is her ability to pair well known historical material of the so-called heroic age explorations of the Antarctic by Shackleton and others with illuminating glimpses of lesser known lore.

Hidden London featured in the Guardian

Added on 09/09/2019

London has been shaped by its railways, ever since the Metropolitan opened as the world’s first underground line in 1863. As the network grew, old stations, tunnels, entrances, passageways and shafts were left behind.

Vanessa Heggie’s Higher and Colder reviewed in Nature

Added on 05/09/2019

The North Pole, South Pole and ‘third pole’, Mount Everest, were prime twentieth-century expeditionary challenges. To physiologists such as Nello Pace and Kåre Rohdal, they were also labs for probing the physical impacts of …

Alberto Manguel’s Fabulous Monsters reviewed in the Spectator

Added on 31/08/2019

Whether we see the primary cause as being postmodernism or cultural fragmentation, the intellectual consensus is that we don’t talk meaningfully to each other because we lack communal stories.

How to Be an Anticapitalist in the 21st Century Guardian review

Added on 30/08/2019

Wright makes the case for what’s wrong with capitalism, what would be better, and how to achieve it. This is the rare book that speaks to both the faithful and the unconverted. You could buy it for your sceptical uncle or militant cousin.

Illuminated Paris reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement

Added on 30/08/2019

Paris was first referred to as La Ville Lumière in the 18th century, an allusion to its role as the locus of the Enlightenment. The name became prophetically apposite during the 19th century with the city’s embrace of the gas lights.

Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune reviewed in the Spectator

Added on 24/08/2019

Readers of Jane Austen gain a clear idea of the task facing the daughters of gentlemen. They need to secure a husband who can enable them to keep or improve their social & economic status. But what about their opposite numbers?

Pirates review — the lure of the skull & crossbones

Added on 23/08/2019

Except for the silvery ripples created by the ship as it knifed through the dark-blue water, the Bohol Sea was dead calm. Then, as if from nowhere, two small fishing boats appeared and approached the ship to hawk their catch.

Time Within Time reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement

Added on 23/08/2019

In the beginning is a child. A boy, no more than ten, perhaps younger, sleeping outside in the sun. Each time he opens his eyes he sees his mother first – and then, the world. Once or twice he catches her glance before falling asleep again.