Some books… This post is a review of some books about British Artists, mostly women, by women: Breaking Free Virginia Nicholson’s Among the Bohemians tells the extraordinary history of a group of artists and writers who overthrew conventions in both their art and their lives. Written by one of the family (her grandparents were Clive… Continue reading Daring Daubers
Category: Review
Cutting the Fringe
Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions by Sabine Hossenfelder (2022, Atlantic Books, 248 pages pbk.) Bursting with opinions Dr Hossenfelder is a German theoretical physicist and highly accomplished science communicator. She writes popular science books and creates a strong presence on her YouTube channel, with her trademark combative opinions. In this book… Continue reading Cutting the Fringe
Colours – in Black & White
Chromorama: How Colour Changed Our Way of Seeing by Riccardo Falcinelli (2017, translated from Italian 2022, published by Penguin Random House 2025; 470 pages) What a beautifully illustrated, free-wheeling journey through history, art, graphic design, marketing, technology, science, and philosophy! This book is one of a kind, and it truly lives up to its subtitle… Continue reading Colours – in Black & White
Finding Ludwig
In Search of Beethoven: A Personal Journey by John Suchet (Elliott & Thompson, 2024; 302 pages) Between Two Stools The journalist and broadcaster John Suchet has written several books about Ludwig van Beethoven, reflecting a lifelong love of the great composer’s music, bordering on the obsessive. So he has written extensively about Beethoven and while… Continue reading Finding Ludwig
Life Isn’t Easy
How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology by Philip Ball (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2023; Picador, 2025; 541 pages) There is no Blueprint There is a certain frisson when reading something that overthrows long-held assumptions. And one persistent and still widely taught idea is that our DNA holds the blueprint for everything… Continue reading Life Isn’t Easy
Messenger
“Breaking Through” by Katalin Karikó 2023, Penguin / Random House, 322 pp. From there to here Katalin Karikó’s story is not a simple “rags-to-riches” tale, although her humble and unlikely origins in a rural village in communist Hungary, and the journey to worldwide acclaim and (after the end of this book) a Nobel Prize, would… Continue reading Messenger
Falling Forever
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Vintage / Penguin Random House, 2024, paperback 136 pages) A Day in the Life Six people get up, eat, exercise, do their jobs, take time to reflect, look out of the window, socialise and go to sleep. Just an ordinary day. Each of them have their every waking hour mapped out:… Continue reading Falling Forever
Losing Your Marbles
The Museum of Other People: From Colonial Acquisitions to Cosmopolitan Exhibitions by Adam Kuper (2023, Profile Books, 416 pages) Jump in… Holiday Souvenirs As Western Europeans forged trade routes and “discovered” New Worlds in Africa, Asia and America, planting their flags and striding over their colonies, so the first huge accumulations of cultural artefacts were… Continue reading Losing Your Marbles
Rock Steady
Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Authorised Biography of Charlie Watts by Paul Sexton (2022, Mudlark, 344 pp. paperback) Jump in… Ploughing his own Furrow I don’t usually read rock biographies. The people in the entertainment and music industry are rarely interesting to me. Learning about their indulgences or often chaotic lifestyles is more likely to detract… Continue reading Rock Steady
No Regrets
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Published by Cannongate Books, 2020, 288 pp. I love this book. Simple as that. I was amused, interested and in the end really moved by this story. To the extent that I nearly missed my stop on the train, and had to hurry onto the platform with tears on… Continue reading No Regrets