News and reviews
Chicago’s Thrifty Science reviewed in Nature
Added on 12/02/2019
Many students of science spend a fair bit of time learning about the theorists and experimentalists of the 17th and 18th centuries. Yet it can be hard to picture these figures through the layers of historical scholarship and popular accounts.
READ MOREAmritsar 1919 reviewed in the Telegraph
Added on 11/02/2019
It was one of the ugliest incidents in Britain’s imperial past. In April 1919 British soldiers, commanded by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, fired into a large crowd of Indians in an enclosed space in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar.
READ MOREJohn Carey reviews Henrik Ibsen: The Man and the Mask
Added on 10/02/2019
While Henrik Ibsen was writing his play Brand in Rome in 1865, he kept a scorpion under an upturned beer glass on his desk. When it seemed to be ailing he would give it a piece of fruit, which it attacked with its sting.
READ MOREAllowed to Grow Old featured in the Observer
Added on 10/02/2019
“When I began this project, my galleries weren’t sure people would want to buy the prints, because the pictures were too sad,” says the American photographer Isa Leshko. “So I put a film about the work online.”
READ MOREGo The Way Your Blood Beats wins Stonewall Book Award
Added on 07/02/2019
Part essay, part memoir and part love letter, Go the Way Your Blood Beats challenges readers to question neat categorization of sexuality. Using bisexuality as a framework, the author explores the complex psychologies of human desire.
READ MOREBabel – one of four art books you need to read this February
Added on 05/02/2019
This book explores the role of translation in the global transmission of ideas, stories and cultural practices. It reveals the nuances of unpacking language and draws upon a wealth of textual and material sources.
READ MOREPetrach: Everywhere a Wanderer reviewed in the LRB
Added on 03/02/2019
Francesco Petrarca is one of the ‘three crowns’ of early Italian literature. There was a brief period when all three were alive: Dante died in 1321, when Petrarch was 17 and Boccaccio 8; the younger writers worked in his shadow.
READ MOREKehinde Andrews, author of Zed’s Back to Black, writes in the Guardian
Added on 30/01/2019
The latest figures to emerge showing racial inequality in the criminal justice system are sadly as unsurprising as they are shocking. Institutional racism only increases the marginalisation of black and brown young people.
READ MOREWhy was the word dunce originally an anti-Catholic insult?
Added on 23/01/2019
The English language is rich with eponyms – words that are named after an individual. The Real McCoy from Bodleian Library Publishing features 150 of the most interesting and enlightening specimens.
READ MOREBeasts at Bedtime reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement
Added on 22/01/2019
Those familiar with the Ents in The Lord of the Rings or the Once-ler in The Lorax may have learnt something about the spiritual and economic value of trees, or at least the deeds of the eco-warriors who protect them.
READ MOREAnnie Proulx on the best books to understand climate change
Added on 21/01/2019
The novelist shares her favourite books to help us cope with how our world is changing – and inspire everyone to do something about it. Her list includes Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement.
READ MOREThe World Saved by Kids shortlisted for the John Florio Translation Prize
Added on 21/01/2019
By reflecting the myriad of lights contained in Morante’s unattainable prism, Cristina Viti’s translation is an essential lesson on the virtue of impossibility. It invites us to rethink what translation is and does.
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