Femi Fadugba: ‘There’s no reason why Peckham couldn’t be the theoretical...
The physicist‑turned-YA novelist talks about choosing to set The Upper World in south London, and how it was snapped up by Daniel Kaluuya for NetflixRead an extract from The Upper World belowHad it not...
View ArticleParadise regained in the New Forest: no planes, no people. Just one man and...
A cameraman who recorded the lives of a goshawk family in the New Forest during lockdown saw them as a symbol of hopeThere were moments last spring when wildlife cameraman James Aldred felt guilty...
View ArticleIn brief: The Island of Missing Trees; Tunnel 29; Vesper Flights – review
A powerful novel with a Cypriot backdrop, the thrilling story of a cold war escape and astute essays from nature writer Helen MacdonaldElif ShafakViking, £14.99, pp368Continue reading...
View ArticleThe best books about the post-human Earth
From Mary Shelley’s sole survivor to David Farrier’s survey of the traces we leave behind … author Cal Flyn on the most potent predictionsWe humans have a profound impact on the world around us. Bob...
View ArticleLife’s Edge by Carl Zimmer review – what does it mean to be alive?
This profound meditation on the science of life explores where it has come from and how it evolves At a medical research laboratory in California, Alysson Muotri has used chemistry to change skin cells...
View ArticleCan ‘smart thinking’ books really give you the edge?
Trust your gut, boost your memory, de-bias your decision making… can we train our brains to perform better? The world out there can often seem as though it is hurtling to hell in a handcart: people are...
View ArticleBeing You by Professor Anil Seth review – the exhilarating new science of...
Our world and the self are constructions of the brain, a pioneering neuroscientist argues For every stoner who has been overcome with profound insight and drawled, “Reality is a construct, maaan,” here...
View ArticleCrude Britannia by James Marriott and Terry Macalister review – a harrowing read
A story of missed opportunities and industrial decline is told with rare insight and vivacityThis November the eyes of the world will turn to Glasgow. “Cop26 meeting is last chance, says Alok Sharma as...
View ArticleThe Story of Work and The Man Who Mistook His Job for His Life review – pride...
Nine to five for 700,000 years: two books show that working life is all about cooperation, whether hunting prey or a pay riseHunting is hard. You have to run fast, for miles, often in the heat of the...
View ArticleBeing a Human review – two go mad in the stone age
Charles Foster’s search for the meaning of human life leads him and his son to become hedgehog-eating hunter-gatherers in a Derbyshire woodCharles Foster’s previous book, Being a Beast, is one of the...
View ArticleNeuroscience and the misperception of reality | Letter
As living creatures, we are exquisitely evolved to interact with the world through perception, says David HughesGaia Vince, reviewing Anil Seth’s Being You: A New Science of Consciousness (The...
View ArticleWainwright prize for nature writing goes to James Rebanks for English Pastoral
Award comes during booming year for nature books, with sales over the last two months reaching £2.8mJames Rebanks’s story of his family’s farm in the Cumbrian Fells, English Pastoral, has won the...
View ArticleFrom Boudicca to modern Britain: the dream of island utopias, ruled by women
Once the British Isles were seen as a stronghold of female leadership. Patriarchal culture pushed these stories to the geographical margins – yet they live on, a force too potent to ignoreThroughout...
View ArticleThe best recent fantasy, horror and science fiction – review roundup
Dare to Know by James Kennedy; Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; The Black Locomotive by Rian Hughes; Five Minds by Guy Morpuss; and AI 2041: Ten Visions for our Future by Kai-Fu Lee and...
View ArticleIn brief: The Man Who Died Twice; Aesop’s Animals; Breathtaking – reviews
Richard Osman’s second novel doesn’t disappoint. Plus, the science behind Aesop’s fables and on the Covid frontline with Dr Rachel ClarkeRichard OsmanViking, £18.99, pp432To order The Man Who...
View ArticleExponential by Azeem Azhar review – bridging the technology gap
A bullish survey of AI, biotech, renewables and more explains how change is leaving us behind, and what to do about itA 2020 survey found that 60% of people felt the pace of change in life was too...
View ArticleAre we eating ourselves to extinction?
It’s not just animals that are at risk of dying out, the world’s crops are in rapid decline. Here’s why it matters what is on your plateIn eastern Turkey, in a golden field overshadowed by grey...
View Article‘I Know Who Caused Covid-19’ review – the global blame game
Zhou Xun and Sander Gilman show how fear and poor terminology have fuelled racial prejudice during the pandemicIt’s not surprising that Covid-19 has made people angry: their lives have become disrupted...
View ArticleA Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century review – self-help laced with...
Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein attempt to show how human nature is at odds with modern society, but their science, and style, gratesImagine discovering a fence in the middle of a desert. Not...
View ArticleUncontrolled Spread review: Trump’s first FDA chief on the Covid disaster
Scott Gottlieb has written a fine account of what went wrong and what we must do better next timeCovid deaths in the US have passed 680,000. More than 2,000 lives are lost every day. The south and...
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