3,096 Days
‘3,096 Days’ by Natascha Kampusch; Penguin, 2010. 256pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 10 January 2011 The agonising and ultimately redemptive tale of the trapped Chilean miners captured the world’s hearts and headlines. At the time of writing, the 33rd and final miner has just been released into euphoria, and into the spotlight, from their underground entombment. Peter Stanford writing in The Independent said that:...
Taming the Gods
‘Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents’ by Ian Buruma; Princeton University Press, 2010. 142pp Reviewed by Steve Nash | October 2010 Author of the acclaimed ‘Murder in Amsterdam’ an account of the murder of Theo van Gogh, Ian Buruma has followed this up with an attempt to investigate one of the central conundrums of the modern world. What is needed apart from freedom of speech and the right to vote to...
Two Cases for the (Floods) Defence
‘Atlas of the New Dutch Water Defence Line’ (010 Publishers) & ‘Facing up to rising sea levels (Building Futures, RIBA) Reviewed by Austin Williams | February 2010 Contrary to the implication in its title, the Atlas of the New Dutch Water Defence Line has nothing to do with global warming and flood management. The book is a historical assessment of the network of watercourses known as the Nieuwe Hollandse...
Modern Man Made Flesh
‘The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: or the murder at road hill house’ by Kate Summerscale; Bloomsbury, 2009. 400pp Reviewed by Sarah Boyes | 01 November 2009 June, 1842. A small detective division is created in the London Met, by special permission of the Home Office. Camberwell’s Jack Whicher is one of a small group of new detectives, on a salary of £73 a year, who is allowed to shed the traditional bobby’s blue and wear plain...
Reflecting on Britain’s New Towns
‘Britain’s New Towns: Garden Cities to Sustainable Communities’ by Anthony Alexander; Taylor & Francis, 2009. 199pp Reviewed by Alastair Donald | 21 October 2009 When Ebenezer Howard, clerk, utopian thinker, inventor and spiritualist, attended a séance in 1926, he received this message from his first wife: “You have accomplished more than you know”. It’s unclear what the former Mrs Howard thinks of the New Town...
Building Resilience
‘The Everyday Resilience of the City: How Cities Respond to Terrorism and Disaster’ by J. Coaffee, D. Murkami-Wood and P. Rogers; Palgrave/Macmillan, 2008. 304pp Reviewed by Alastair Donald | 28 September 2009 Whether through ecological breakdown, terrorism, pandemics or crime, cities are now widely perceived as permanently ‘under threat’. Consequently, creating ‘resilience’ has become a key concept in public policy, and...
Feelbad Britan
‘Feelbad Britan: How to make it better’ edited by Pat Devine, Andrew Pearmain and David Purdy; Lawrence & Wishart, 2009. 250pp Reviewed by Martin Earnshaw | 03 August 2009 The times we live in call for bold new ideas, a frank discussion of how we got into the current crisis, and an experimental approach to solving longstanding social problems. In short, we need books with the scope and ambition of Feelbad Britain....
Selling out the 'bottom billion'
‘The Bottom Billion: why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it’ by Paul Collier; Oxford University Press, 2007. 224pp Reviewed by Daniel Ben-Ami Africa evokes strong emotions. In many ways it shows humanity at its poorest and most wretched. Every year millions of Africans die needlessly of easily preventable or curable diseases. Many more are locked in seemingly pointless but bloody conflicts. It...
Storm In Chandigarh
‘Storm In Chandigarh’ by Nayantara Sahgal; Penguin, 2008 (1st Edition, 1969); 248pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 5 February 2009 The province of Haryana was carved out of the Indian state of the Punjab in 1966 to form the Hindi-speaking 17th state of India. Even though it became independent, Haryana continues to be allied to the Punjabi-speaking Punjab… or what is left of it after it was divided almost in half....
Nudging: The very Antithesis of Choice
‘Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness’ by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein; Penguin, 2008. 224pp Reviewed by Martyn Perks | 19 December 2008 Organ donation is a contentious issue. As it stands in the UK, losing a close relative can suddenly mean a difficult decision on whether or not to donate their organs, especially if they did not indicate any prior consent. There are moves towards...
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