Mind blown, thinking changed

In The Dawn of everything I found a great deal of food for my confirmation bias. This is often a … More

Eating the world

Not many of us, I suspect, think of the British Empire much in terms of food. I certainly didn’t, before … More

This small book, published in 404 Ink’s ‘Inklings’ series, covers a subject close to my heart—since starting to listen heavily … More

Finally, an academic has written a book about what I spend most of my time doing. Well, I say finally… … More

I think I’ve burnt myself out on research now. There’s a lot more I could read to expand my thinking … More

The historian Roy Porter was known during his lifetime as a ‘one-man book factory’, a prodigiously productive scholar who wrote … More

Mostly if I want to find out about something (I call it ‘research’ when I’m feeling self-important), I look on … More

I read an interview with Suzanne Simard in New Scientist and it brought tears to my eyes. Her description of … More

I’m fortunate enough to be closely related to someone (my mum) who is something of an authority on the state … More

It’s a strange privilege to have had a grandfather who was, as he once put it, ‘world famous to five … More

A book with a title like The Cambridge History Of Medicine makes an obvious claim to be definitive, but also … More

The world of ‘elite food’ raises certain questions. It would be easy to write off entirely, from a social justice … More

In the interests of easing myself gradually into research, I’ve continued my investigation of historical bread-baking with quite a modest … More

My two main topics of research for my soon-to-be commenced fantasy novel are baking and medicine, since they’re the activities … More