The problem with science in 1818 was that it raised a huge number of questions without really being able to answer them.  Most shortfalls were in the field of medical science. Picture, if you will, the inconvenience of not actually being sure whether a person was...

Who spoke the first words, and what were they? Why are humans the only animals that can speak a complex language? Why is the origin of language so elusive? These are some of the questions answered in this new book about how we came to talk, by Physicist and Linguist...

This book is a love affair with the country of Japan, its people and its words. I’ll say words not language because Fifty Sounds, winner of the 2019 Fitzcarraldo Essay prize, contains a glossary of random Japanese words thrown together as pairs, with each word pair...

In the summer of 1944, not long before France was liberated, German soldiers grown desperate in the face of allied opposition rounded up the entire population of the village. 642 civilians were murdered. The men were shot point blank. The women and children were...

A number of books have been written recently with the aim of drawing attention to the apparent misconceptions that have directed Western civilisation since the first murmurings of agricultural and industrial revolution were heard in Britain and Europe over four...

In his new book chillingly titled Every Breath You Take, Ian Williams, who was Channel 4 News foreign correspondent for Asia from 1995 to 2006, graphically explains why we should be wary of the world’s most dangerous and fastest growing superpower. China’s reputation...