the stories old towns tell: a journey through cities at the heart of europe
Yale University Press, 2023, paperback 2025Shortlisted for the 2026 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies, awarded to 'the book that best transcends a focus on any one country, state, or people to stimulate new ways of thinking about contemporary Europe as a whole'.
What Stories Do Old Towns Tell? A Story Map
A podcast about The Stories Old Towns Tell for New Books Network, 17 February 2025
Author interview for Aspects of History
Firelighters, Fairytales and Fate: The Stories Old Towns Tell
Fairytale of Rothenburg, a story that the town's tourism service doesn't tell.
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.
Buy The Stories Old Towns Tell in paperback or hardback from Bookshop.org.
Also available as an audiobook, read by Philip Battley.
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.
Buy Dope Girls from Bookshop.org.
There's an audiobook version too, read by Jaimi Barbakoff.
Dope Girls Blog: the story as it continues to unfold.
Dope Girls in the Bureau of Lost Culture podcast, 1 September 2024.
Matthew Sweet's Palace of Great War Varieties, BBC Radio 3, 28 December 2014.
Case notes, coal gas and cocaine Wellcome Library guest post 9 November 2012.
Thinking Allowed, 'Cocaine Girls in the West End'; presented by Laurie Taylor, BBC Radio 4.
four words for friend: The Rewards of Using More Than One Language In A Divided World
Yale University Press,
2020
'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
Buy Four Words For Friend in paperback from Bookshop.org.
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.
' ... 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
Buy Turned Out Nice (ebook) from Bookshop.org.
Will It Turn Out Nice In 2100? FutureFest Shoreditch Town Hall 28 September 2013.
Summertime 2100, and the living isn't easy: extract from Turned Out Nice, Independent on Sunday 30 May 2010.
Thinking Allowed, British society and climate change; presented by Laurie Taylor, BBC Radio 4.
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
Thinking
Allowed, on Trust, with Onora O'Neill;
presented by Laurie Taylor, BBC Radio 4.
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
Buy A Reason For Everything in paperback from Bookshop.org.
John Maynard Smith 1920-2004
latterly Professor Emeritus in the School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex. A personal appreciation written after his death in April 2004.
as we know it: coming to terms with an evolved mind
Granta, 1999
'Utterly fascinating ...
a beautiful and moving picture of evolution.'
Andrew Marr, Observer
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.
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.