latterly Professor Emeritus
in the School of Life Sciences, University of
Sussex. A personal appreciation written after his
death in April 2004.
Handaxes: Products of
Sexual Selection? Marek Kohn and
Steven Mithen Antiquity 73, 1999. The
journal version of the hypothesis developed in As
We Know It, written with cognitive
archaeologist Steven Mithen of the University of
Reading.
DOPE GIRLS: THE BIRTH OF THE
BRITISH DRUG UNDERGROUND
Granta, 2024
Moral panics broke out during and
after the First World War as reports emerged of drug
use on the streets and in the clubs of London's West
End. They expressed a traumatised society's fears
about modernity and change - especially the rapidly
changing lives of young women.
Since
it first appeared in 1992, Dope Girls has
acquired cult classic status, and has now inspired a BBC
drama series of the same name. The 2024 edition is
revised and updated with new material.
There's an audiobook
version too, read by Jaimi Barbakoff.
the stories old towns tell: a journey
through cities at the heart of europe
An introduction to The Stories
Old Towns Tell from a city in the heart
of Europe.
Szaber Square:
trading 'loot' and possessions in devastated post-war
Wrocław.
Fritz Haarman: the serial killer who gave an Old Town
a bad name.
Modern Old Town, Traditional
Island.
Also available as an audiobook,
read by Philip Battley.
four words for friend: The Rewards of
Using More Than One Language In A Divided World
Yale University Press, 2020
In a divided world, using more than
one language helps us to understand ourselves and others
better, to live together better, and to make the most of
our various cultures. The challenge is to resolve the
fundamental contradiction of languages: that they
exist as much to prevent communication as to make it
happen.
'Beautifully written … Makes a powerful case for knowing
more than one language as a life-enriching skill that
may enlarge our sympathies in a world that wants to
build walls.' Steven Poole, Guardian
'It's especially insightful in the way it discusses
future trends ...' David Crystal on Shepherd.com
hardback edition:
Yale
University Press, 2019
turned out nice: how the british
isles will change as the world heats up
Faber & Faber, 2010
Climate change will change the
relationships between the British Isles and the rest
of the world, between the nations of the Isles, and
between the north and south of Britain. Precisely
because the British Isles will be sheltered from the
physical extremes of climate change, they offer an
opportunity to think about just how profound and
pervasive the effects of a disrupted Earth system on
human societies will be.
' ... grimly realistic and yet in
many ways inspiring ... A richly detailed, engrossingly
readable history of how Britain came to be the way it
is, Turned Out Nice is also a riveting
description of what Britain is likely to become.' John
Gray, New Statesman
' ... delightful coolness and subtlety' Andrew Marr, Financial
Times
' a tour de force of information and speculation ...
Nature writing which takes the future and its
possibilities as seriously as the past ' The
Economist
'intimate and stylish' Fred Pearce, Guardian
' a science writer of rare gifts' Marcus Berkmann, Daily
Mail
trust: self-interest and the
common good
Oxford University Press, 2008
A short account of how to build
trust by finding or creating common interests.
'Brilliant' - Guardian
.
a reason for everything: natural
selection and the english imagination
Faber & Faber, 2004
How a series of British
scientists shaped evolutionary thought, and how
evolutionary thinking shaped their views of the world:
Alfred Russel Wallace, Ronald Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane,
John Maynard Smith, Bill Hamilton and Richard Dawkins.
'a supremely intelligent author’ Graham Farmelo, Sunday
Telegraph
'a wonderful writer' A.C. Grayling, Literary
Review
'One of the best science writers we have' Andrew Brown,
Guardian
'yet another brilliant book' Neal Ascherson, Observer
'A marvellous book' James Flint, New
Scientist
'a very good book' Richard Fortey FRS
'a talented and witty writer' Paul Harvey FRS, Times
Higher Education Supplement
as we know it: coming to terms
with an evolved mind
Granta, 1999
The core of this book is a
reflection about handaxes and their makers - not human
as we know it, not apes; not creatures, but beings of a
kind that we will never know. It develops an argument
that handaxes stayed much the same for a million years
because the ability to make them to a standard pattern
was a reliable indicator of the makers' capacities and
therefore their potential as mates.
'Utterly fascinating ... a
beautiful and moving picture of evolution.' Andrew
Marr, Observer
the race gallery: the return of
racial science
Jonathan Cape, 1995
The Race Gallery reflected
on different ways of thinking and talking about race.
It pointed out that ideas about biologically based
differences between human groups persisted or
reappeared in various strands of science, although
opposition to racism drew on science as a source of
authority.
'elegant, timely and devastating'
Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
'invaluable' Tom Nairn, London
Review of Books
narcomania: On heroin
Faber & Faber, 1987
How panics about drugs express
society's deepest anxieties.
