I worried from the title and first few pages that this might prove too flippant and shallow from me, but I was wrong to worry. I quickly settled into I worried from the title and first few pages that this might prove too flippant and shallow from me, but I was wrong to worry. I quickly settled into it, and it’s obvious that Southon knows her stuff, takes deep joy in it, and knows where she can skimp on explanations a bit in order to get to the meat of things. She gives a lot of context without getting too bogged down in it, while telegraphing that the point is coming; if you really hate comments like “bear with me, we’re getting to the good stuff”, then it won’t work for you… but mostly, I thought she did a really good job.
The idea of a book about murder in Rome gave me a bit of pause, since I didn’t think they really had such a concept… and indeed, I was right, and Southon acknowledges that it’s a very modern way to interrogate these sources, and that in many of the cases described, no one batted an eyelid (the murder of slaves, particularly). As she says, though, the deaths and the attitudes to those deaths still tell us a lot about Roman society and the place of various people within it.
I was intrigued by the topic, but didn’t expect to find it a pageturner; that it was says something about how engaging Southon’s writing was. I found it deeply enjoyable — particularly as it was one of those books that had me turning to my wife to delightedly ask ‘did you know?’ and read bits out or wave my hands excitedly as I connected up bits and shared the fun....more
Focusing on 1660 to 1900 (a very precise time range!), this book uses the tie-on pocket as an ‘in’ to dig into women’s lives via the historical recordFocusing on 1660 to 1900 (a very precise time range!), this book uses the tie-on pocket as an ‘in’ to dig into women’s lives via the historical records, including the physical records (pockets which have ended up in collections and museums), writing and court records. It’s a fairly academic book — lots of “meaning resides in the blahblahblah” type language — and also serves as a pretty comprehensive repository for photographs of extant pockets and their details, but it’s accessible enough if you have enough of an interest, and there’s a lot of fascinating detail.
What really surprised me was how long the tie-on pocket lasted, and the wealth of evidence the authors were actually able to show about how they were used, made, obtained, bought, bartered, pawned and gifted. They really do make a good entrée for the history of women’s lives; I thought one of the most interesting parts were the court records, giving us a glimpse into what women carried in their pockets and why.
Not the most riveting read, even for non-fiction, but the photographs are beautifully done and in full colour, and the subject is fascinating enough that I found it well worth the slightly dry and academic approach....more
This book is about the importance of sleep: the functions it fulfils for us, how that changes throughout our life cycles, and the consequences of not This book is about the importance of sleep: the functions it fulfils for us, how that changes throughout our life cycles, and the consequences of not getting enough. It has a wealth of citations, and most of it was unsurprising to me, suggesting it's a reasonable synthesis of the current state of our knowledge.
However, and this is a really big but, I lost count of how many times Gregory proclaims something and then admits in the next sentence or a footnote that it was a 'small study' and hadn't been replicated in other studies, especially when she says it hasn't been replicated in larger studies. The fact that she made it sound like these things were facts, when actually it was that shaky, gave me pause about more or less everything she said.
You can't make big claims from small, underpowered studies. That's just not how it works. They can be a testing ground, a starting point, but there's no way you should be presenting them as fact in a pop-science book where people might actually think these are tried and tested facts, even if you explain the study is small. People just don't grasp the significance of that (or rather, the fact that it's probably not significant!).
I've also definitely had more engaging pop-science reads lately; Sue Armstrong comes to mind. Sleep can be a fascinating topic, but I found myself nodding off over Nodding Off....more
Honestly, I could've picked this up just for the title, which I thought was clever. But of course, carbon is an intensely important element for life, Honestly, I could've picked this up just for the title, which I thought was clever. But of course, carbon is an intensely important element for life, so it ties in very much with my interest in biology -- no carbon, no us! -- and it didn't seem like it'd be too far off the random path of my current interests. Which proved to be mostly true: I found it harder going than a book about biology, my preferred science, but Hazen's enthusiasm for his subject carried me along to a great extent.
Often enthusiasm gives life to writing, but I did find that there were bits of this I got a bit stuck on just through not getting involved enough... and knowing that e.g. Richard Fortey can get me excited about rocks with the way he writes, that I do put down to a certain dryness in the writing. Oddly enough, it was the parts on biology I yawned through; I don't need the facts to be new to me, but if you're explaining to me about why carbon is the ideal element for life, I need you to make it more exciting than my textbook. (This may not be fair, as I find certain aspects of my textbooks very exciting. The membrane attack complex is a marvel! No, friends who have been subject to me exclaiming about the MAC -- I'm not over it yet! Biology is amazing!)
Anyway, if you're interested in carbon, in the history of how we understand carbon as well as the current state of the field, it's not a bad read. It's lacking in tables and images that can really talk people through the data rather than just explaining like a story, so it's very pop-science in that sense, so I'm not sure how much of it will stick for me. The symphony conceit got old for me/didn't always feel like the right way to balance/organise the material, but I learned some new things and cemented some others in my mind, and really, that's all I ask....more
This book is a handy survey of women's fashion (mostly of dresses, but occasionally including titbits about other aspects of dress and accessorising, This book is a handy survey of women's fashion (mostly of dresses, but occasionally including titbits about other aspects of dress and accessorising, like necklaces and shoes) from the 16th to the 20th century. It features full-colour photographs, carefully annotated with useful pointers as to what to notice, and introductory essays explaining the trends of each period.
The annotation is very good, but the introductory paragraphs for each section are a bit less organised. It doesn't refer to specific examples of dresses in that chapter, but stays totally general... meaning it's hard for me -- a not especially visual person -- to link the dresses up with the trends they illustrate. Sometimes I'd look through the dresses for a specific feature, but not really see anything that seemed to match. In addition, sometimes the text would mention a specific photograph or illustration, but it wasn't next to the text, and there was no helpful "(figure 3)" or anything; instead it would say something like "this photograph of a gentleman..." Which photograph of a gentleman?
Anyway, I found it really interesting, and useful, with a few flaws. It would probably work better for someone with a visual memory!...more
When I mention that I've been reading a history of biscuits, people's usual response is confusion about why that would take a whole book or be particuWhen I mention that I've been reading a history of biscuits, people's usual response is confusion about why that would take a whole book or be particularly interesting. The answer is that Collingham discusses the social, economic and political circumstances surrounding the development of biscuits, and though the subtitle calls it a “British indulgence“, it discusses other countries too and the colonial uses of biscuits (yes, really -- they were thought to be useful in 'civilising' places like India).
This was exactly what I was hoping for: a microhistory on a really narrow topic that used that topic to reflect on larger issues. You might not automatically think of looking at the Industrial Revolution through the role of biscuits, or realise the extent to which naval voyages of exploration relied on ship's biscuit, or appreciate the fact that the original biscuits were twice-baked bread made a couple of times a year in communities that couldn't afford to bake fresh bread every day... but all those different topics can open out when you start digging in.
You don't just get to learn about when they started making Jammie Dodgers, or that the company was notoriously cheapskate and used plums for the "raspberry" jam in them because it was cheaper than raspberries... that's certainly one of the things I learned, but I also learned that the custom of following savoury food with a sweet dessert has come down in a very long tradition from when the stomach was thought to putrefy food, and Arab ideas that sugar was ideal to help seal off the stomach from harmful vapours caused by that process.
In the end, it's a history of biscuits and it comes back to that pretty swiftly when it strays away, but using the biscuit as a home base, it can tell you an awful lot.
In addition, it also contains some recipes between chapters, some of them traditional and others from modern sources. I haven't tried any, since I'm not the baker of the family and I'm also very lazy, but it's a nice touch and we'll probably keep my copy in order to give them a try someday....more
I've read one of Sue Armstrong's books before, on the role of the p53 gene in cancer, so despite aging and the science thereof not really being my thiI've read one of Sue Armstrong's books before, on the role of the p53 gene in cancer, so despite aging and the science thereof not really being my thing, I thought I'd give it a try. And it was, in fact, riveting. I knew a little about some of the experiments -- I read a paper on sirtuins and resveratrol for my final exam of my BSc, so that gave me some extra context -- but much of the detail was new to me, and Armstrong explains things beautifully and keeps things very clear.
The answer to the question of how and why we age is, of course, "lots of ways and lots of reasons", and the science isn't all the way yet on understanding exact mechanisms and unpicking the many small effects that can add up over a lifetime. Armstrong avoids giving any false certainty, but makes it clear how people in the know expect things to go, and what they're cautious about. Unlike some writers, she doesn't intrude a lot into the narrative (we don't have to hear stories about her neighbour's sister's dog's brother, which some science writers lean on a bit too heavily), or when she does it feels relevant and useful to understand where she stands.
For a field with so many different puzzle-pieces, Armstrong really brings it together well, and I actually found myself reading this all in one day, in great big chunks. Now that's good science writing!...more
The End of Everything is about all the potential ways the universe can end. Katie Mack describes the various scenarios and why they're likely or unlikThe End of Everything is about all the potential ways the universe can end. Katie Mack describes the various scenarios and why they're likely or unlikely, the evidence for them, and what looking into these possibilities can teach us about the universe, even if they all turn out to be wrong. She has a fairly breezy style, but some of the actual physics is pretty hard to understand, so it's to her credit that it feels comparatively light while also making what she describes clear enough.
Unfortunately, for me, physics is one of those topics that I don't dislike because it's hard -- though I do find it to be difficult -- as because it leaves me very much wondering what the point of everything is. Even biology will leave me feeling that way once I dig too deep, and this isn't a dig at Mack at all... but it definitely made it harder for me to enjoy this book, because it does deal with those really big topics, and where some people can take joy in all the unknowns and the deep weirdness that we manage to exist at all, it really gets under my skin and makes me feel very small and pointless. I can't really recommend that as an experience, but if entropy doesn't get you down and a cold empty universe doesn't bother you, then this will be much more to your taste!...more
I didn't really expect this book to be so riveting, but it really was. The central idea is a bit shaky, because Lynda Pyne's definition of "genuine faI didn't really expect this book to be so riveting, but it really was. The central idea is a bit shaky, because Lynda Pyne's definition of "genuine fakes" is very, very elastic: one example is lab-created diamonds, another is the Spanish Forger's faked medieval illustrations, another is the faked Archaeoraptor fossil... The things that make each item "genuine" or "fake" are pretty flexible. The reasoning is most solid when it comes to art like the Spanish Forger's work, which has now become desirable in and of itself. The reasoning for the Archaeoraptor fossil is basically "well, it's made up of real fossils!" Yeah, who cares, those fossils have been ripped from their original correct context in a desperate attempt to deceive people and get more money. That's not a genuine fake, that's just a fake.
And then there's a bit about wildlife documentaries and how they're kind of fake (sometimes, depending on how they're filmed) and kind of not, and the point kind of dissipated somewhere in there for a while in favour of just explaining how much money it takes to create a documentary like Blue Planet II.
That all said, though, even if Pyne's examples don't all hang together, I enjoyed her dissection of each item and the things it has to tell us. I didn't know anything about the Spanish Forger before, and that was maybe my favourite thing to learn about. Interesting stuff here, just... not really very organised....more
I don't think this book would be of great interest to someone who isn't interested in sewing at all, but you don't have to actually sew to take an intI don't think this book would be of great interest to someone who isn't interested in sewing at all, but you don't have to actually sew to take an interest -- a couple of episodes of the Great British Sewing Bee should set you up with all you need to know for background, if you feel you need to know a little more. Mostly, what you need to know is explained in the text, as the history goes through the development of early patterns from "rock of eye" to printed patterns showing various different sizes.
It seems that paper patterns have a surprising amount to tell fashion history: although paper patterns for home sewers were behind the fashion by a little, they couldn't be that far behind or they'd be pointless, so they did follow fashion and sometimes inform it (for instance, in the length of mini-skirts). Patterns have survived well, despite the flimsy paper, because the paper was acid-free, and often systems of notches and punched holes were used instead of ink. Carefully unfolded, very old patterns are still useable and useful.
It's surprising to me that the companies which established themselves early in the history of providing patterns for home sewers still exist! It was a little odd to meet their names back before printed patterns became possible, for instance.
The book is richly illustrated with images of the fashions and pattern-packets discussed, showing the trends through time very visually as pattern companies started putting the pattern pieces in envelopes, providing more instruction, and expanding their ranges to tempt younger sewers into following fashions. It also comes with some vintage patterns, which make no sense to me, but might interest people with a less academic interest in sewing and actually making garments....more
This is a short primer to various concepts that inevitably come up when you want to sit down and talk about race: how race affects people, your relatiThis is a short primer to various concepts that inevitably come up when you want to sit down and talk about race: how race affects people, your relationship to it, privilege, cross-sectionality, microaggressions... If you've been wondering what some of those concepts or buzzwords mean and you need a little more detail, this book has your back. It's very readable, and well-organised into chapters that develop and build up an overall understanding of some of the major issues you're likely to encounter.
I fear that if you're not willing to go into it with an open mind, you won't get anything out of it. The author asks the reader to sit with some pretty uncomfortable concepts, and goes to some pains to try and make that palatable, to try and convince the reader to open up to it. She's very aware that people find it difficult to let go of their own preconceptions and their own view of themselves and dig into whether they might be contributing to racism in some way (or benefitting from it, or all unwittingly helping it along)... so if you're already affected by racial issues, you might find that aspect a bit frustrating. She does mention it being for everybody, but it's pitched at people who are largely unaffected by race.
I found it useful, though sometimes not very in-depth. Certainly a starting point, though....more
Life in Miniature is a bit of a survey of dolls' houses, mostly a descriptive one, which talks about sReceived to review; published November 23rd 2020
Life in Miniature is a bit of a survey of dolls' houses, mostly a descriptive one, which talks about some key examples in order to illustrate trends over the years, and ends with a chapter of advice for those interested in collecting dolls' houses themselves. I'm not; I was more interested in this as a microhistory, and it does do a little of that, discussing the things dolls' houses stood for, for those who owned them, and how trends developed.
For me, though, it was a bit too much plain description, too many descriptions of particular houses rather than the higher-level trends. Maybe there isn't more to analyse about dolls' houses, or the style is different to other microhistories I have loved... but it just didn't turn out the way I hoped.
That said, if you're a big fan of dolls' houses and you'd like to know more about what's out there, this book would be a great guide....more
I feel like this book wasn't quite sure what it was. History of the book? History of access to books? History of what people think about books? AutobiI feel like this book wasn't quite sure what it was. History of the book? History of access to books? History of what people think about books? Autobiography of Martin Latham? There's some genuinely interesting stuff sandwiched in between Latham making sure we know that he worked for Tim Waterstone and knew a bunch of famous people before you could Google them. Sometimes his anecdotes work to illustrate the narrative he's trying to spin... and sometimes he's telling us about weird dreams he had.
It was also full of this... reverence for the codex (not the contents) as a physical object, and being passionately in love with the physical form of a book. He's a fan of physical books you can fondle, annotate, spill things on, write your name in... And I can get it, to some extent, but you'd think people aren't real readers if they don't like to caress books or crease spines or whatever. He does bring across the sensual enjoyment of books, and what a delight that can be for some people, but, yeah, just not sure about this absolute lionising of the codex-form of books above all else, above even the contents (which he rarely discusses in detail).
I expected to love this, but found myself fairly nonplussed. Overall, I can't say I really enjoyed it -- something about Latham and me just didn't click, for a start....more
As with Accessories: Bags, this book caught my interest less because I have an inherent interest in the subject, or even fashion more generally, but bAs with Accessories: Bags, this book caught my interest less because I have an inherent interest in the subject, or even fashion more generally, but because it suits my current rabbit-hole interest. I was here for the titbits about why certain shoes went hand-in-hand with certain dress fashions, and the book certainly had plenty of that kind of titbit -- like the fact that the very long points of shoes like poulaines were somewhat eschewed by women at the time; they just weren't practical and would tangle in the long hem-lines of dresses.
The book is beautifully presented with full-colour photographs/reproductions of art, and it's structured well as a chronological dash through shoe fashion. It's much better about women's fashions than men's (which is not, of course, because women have always had the reputation for being obsessed with their shoes -- I refer you to top boots and Hessians, not to mention the aforementioned poulaines!) because of a survival bias in the existing shoes, and it is much stronger on more recent shoes... which are perhaps least interesting to me.
Definitely interesting, and one I'd recommend if you're interested in the subject....more
Sorry, that really is the title of the book! And it's kind of central to Mohr's premise: that there are two axes of swearing, the 'Holy' and the 'ShitSorry, that really is the title of the book! And it's kind of central to Mohr's premise: that there are two axes of swearing, the 'Holy' and the 'Shit'... or the profane and the obscene, or swearing and cursing -- however you best see the distinction between "for God's sake" and "for fuck's sake". She sets this up by discussing various different cultures (all familiar to a Western audience), starting with the Romans and Greeks (mostly the Romans), then moving to the development of Judaism and the rising importance of oath-taking... and then round the full circle back to obscenity.
It's a fascinating history, though it really is brief when you consider the potential scope for investigating swearing throughout history. I found the chapter on the Old Testament Yahweh fascinating -- Mohr charts the development of monotheism through the way oaths are taken and the importance of oaths in the Old Testament, and it makes a lot of sense. (Reassuringly, it's also well-sourced, and includes quotations and examples.)
It was slower-going than I thought, when I look at my reading time records, but I found it very absorbing. My only complaint would be that the ending felt rather abrupt, even with the later postscript (which briefly discusses an analysis of swearing on Twitter). Recommended!...more
This short volume is from the V&A Museum, discussing the trends in fashion for bags and purses, with a bit of an insight into pockets as well. In manyThis short volume is from the V&A Museum, discussing the trends in fashion for bags and purses, with a bit of an insight into pockets as well. In many ways it's a very feminine story, since men retained pockets in clothing and haven't been such targets of fashion for much of the time. It's a very Western European history of bags, but nonetheless, it's interesting to see how they developed and what was considered important or essential in a bag through time. The text is descriptive and refers to items from the V&A collection to illustrate their points, photographed beautifully and carefully labelled to help you match up the two.
I'll admit, some of these bags are just weird to me, which is an entertainment factor all its own -- mostly I mean the newer fashionable ones, like the one which looks like a bag of Walkers crisps. Why?!
This was perfect for a kind of scatter-brained mood: the stories about each colour are short, and it's easy to dip in and out. Actually, it's better tThis was perfect for a kind of scatter-brained mood: the stories about each colour are short, and it's easy to dip in and out. Actually, it's better that way, since there's some repetition here and there between the colours, and it can get a bit samey to just sit down and read multiples. It seems to be well sourced and squares up with what I know about the history of colour and optics, though admittedly that isn't much!
I would definitely recommend reading it on a colour screen, or preferably in a physical book, where you can see the colours right beside the images. It was OK on my phone screen, but not great.
Overall, enjoyable and informative... but also kinda repetitive. Not something I'm wildly enthusiastic about, even though it came at a good time for me....more
This one is quite an expensive tome, so I was pleased when the library got it for me in ebook! It’s not quite as good as being able to see the full-coThis one is quite an expensive tome, so I was pleased when the library got it for me in ebook! It’s not quite as good as being able to see the full-colour, full-size illustrations, but I’m not very visual so I was here for the text anyway. I could get a quick look at the interesting ones, and that’s enough for me; I recommend experiencing it in colour, though, and probably in pbook form instead of ebook.
Overall, it was… pretty much as I’d expect, from a fairly generalised dinosaur book: there was a lot that I already knew, with some nuggets that I didn’t, and different interpretations of some fossils while trying to portray a fairly broad consensus. There are some gossipy stories about palaeontologists and work in the field, enough to give you a little taste of the conditions fossils get collected in and the history around their study.
There’s nothing particularly surprising, if you’re interested in dinosaurs and tend to pounce on books about them… but for me it was nice to wander through the Cretaceous landscapes for a while and let it wash over me. It’d be great if you were interested in dinosaurs as a kid, don’t know much about them now, and would like a refresher that brings up to date whilst being informative and fairly thorough....more
Invasive Aliens discusses invasive organisms that are not native to Britain and how they got here, how they affect their new home, and what that impliInvasive Aliens discusses invasive organisms that are not native to Britain and how they got here, how they affect their new home, and what that implies for the future. Some of the invasives we've embraced as our own (rabbits and buddleia) while others are hated (grey squirrels)... and others, of course, we know very little about.
I actually picked this up partly because one of the reviews on Amazon complained about "snide references" to Brexit and Nazis. For your pleasure, I've pulled out those three quotations! From the introduction:
Many Brits pride themselves as stoic defenders of a green and pleasant land, boasting a record of resistance against aggressors dating back centuries, be it weathering the Spanish Armada or defying Hitler’s Blitzkrieg. This patriotic fervour, and its clarion call ‘to control borders’, may in part explain the 2016 Brexit vote. Yet, a cursory examination of the natural world reveals that while many interlopers of the human variety have been kept at bay, our islands have throughout history been colonised by a succession of animals, plants, fungi and other organisms that apparently belong elsewhere. Indeed, it’s often hard to sort out the native from foreign.
Which doesn't exactly make the book "political cant disguised as a book on nature", to my mind, given it's mentioned once in the commentary and almost never again. There's one other reference to Brexit in the entire book:
The UK has often taken a lead; for instance, in banning the sale of certain aquatic plants in 2013. But the political imperative of maintaining and boosting frictionless international trade – Brexit or no Brexit – risks trumping concerns about the unavoidable corollary of that flow of goods and people, namely, the arrival of unwanted new species.
Oh noes, the politics. Picture me with my hand to my forehead, swooning.
Finally, the book wraps up with some thoughts about how we're going to treat invasive species in the future, mentioning the contention of some people that invasives actually boost biodiversity, and trying to tease apart what policy could and should be -- and I guess this particular paragraph could come off as a bit pointed.
Public awareness of the issue is higher than ever before, with sensational news headlines stoking our fears. Giant hogweed, introduced as a horticultural curiosity from the Caucasus mountains in the 1820s, has been recast as Britain’s ‘most dangerous plant’ with sap that ‘melts’ a child’s skin. ‘Monster goldfish’ are on the prowl. ‘Sex mad Spanish slugs’ are terrorising our gardens. Emotive terminology isn’t just the preserve of tabloids: even serious scientists will talk about ‘demon shrimps’ and ‘killer algae’ with a straight face. Some of the language has a xenophobic flavour: introduced plants and animals are ‘ex-pats’ or ‘immigrants’, which ‘pollute’ our pristine environment and need to be ‘bashed’ and ‘sent home’. Perhaps it’s telling that the Nazis were among the first to take against non-natives, drafting a ‘Reich Landscape Law’ in 1941 banishing exotic plants from pure German landscapes. Some argue that the current fixation with non-indigenous wildlife is bound up with subliminal, and not so subliminal, antipathy to arrivals of the human kind. Concerns about non-natives and immigration to our small, overcrowded island are, they say, all of a piece.
Despite those snippets, I promise the rest of the book is actually focused on exactly what it suggests -- those are the sole references to Brexit or Nazis in the entire 326-page volume, and politics in general impinges very little beyond the mention of initiatives here or there to eradicate this or that organism, due to impacts on the environment or native species. And, you know, I do wonder if these remarks put their finger on something.
Overall, despite my overall feeling of entertainment about that review, the book felt a little bogged down. The chapters are roughly themed (e.g. around freshwater invasives), but the examples start to feel like a succession of "and ANOTHER thing" -- just as I felt it was wrapping up toward a conclusion, we'd look at another example (and it probably wouldn't add much). Personally, I'd have refined the chapters down a bit and stuck to 2-3 examples per chapter to illustrate the points and the particular difficulties facing a certain part of the ecosystem, and overall slimmed things down. Even finishing the chapters off with some tables of other relevant invasives would have given all the examples in a way that's a bit easier to digest...
It's not unenjoyable, taken in short bursts, but my attention did wander quite a lot. The author's voice is not super-engaging, even though he explains well and chooses good examples. Maybe I also suffer from knowing this stuff a little too well; reading popular science is sometimes the equivalent of shouting "HE'S BEHIND YOU" for an entire play, for me. Bit of a problem of preaching to the choir, except it's a very opinionated choir (with some facts backing up its opinions) that is not sure they are wholly against invasive species as a general principle....more
The COVID-19 Catastrophe was written by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet. Most of the papers I needed to cite in my dissertation on tuberculosis wereThe COVID-19 Catastrophe was written by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet. Most of the papers I needed to cite in my dissertation on tuberculosis were published in The Lancet, if the name doesn't mean anything to you; it's a prestigious medical journal, and Horton himself has a medical degree and a BSc in physiology. He knows whereof he speaks, in other words, and in this book he tears into the failings of governments (mostly the UK, somewhat the US) in coming to grips with the pandemic.
He is very clear in discussing these failings, though he more or less ignores the idea that China had any role to play here. There's one brief reference to the doctor who tried to raise the alarm and was cautioned by the police, if I remember correctly... but if he does mention it at all, it's a very bland reference with no further digging into why that occurred, and whether if people had listened at that point, we'd be in this position now. That's a pretty grave lack.
If you're curious for his position on matters in the UK, here he doesn't hold back. I needn't go over it all again, but suffice it to say that our government was slow to react, loath to give things the weight they deserved, and too quick to lift restrictions. People have died, are dying and will die as a result of the government's actions; they are massively culpable for a lack of leadership and clarity. And he doesn't even have to get onto the mess with Dominic Cummings, probably revealed as the book was already going to press.
The final section looks at what we can do to handle future pandemics better: as he rightly points out, this is only the first, and more are inevitable. Other books have done a better job on the whys (Spillover, by David Quammen) and hows (The End of Epidemics, by Jonathan D. Quick), but it's not a bad high-level summary.
I do worry that one of his final remarks (that COVID marks an end to "sovereignty") is going to be a massive red button for some people that leads them to just ignore everything he says. I don't think he's wrong; I think fragmenting into separate nations with wholly different ways of handling the virus is far from ideal, and I think the WHO has too little power (it has historically received so much of its funding from the US that its policies always have to consider "will this annoy the US?" first and foremost) and funding. We need more unity, not less, if we want to have all this trade and mixing of peoples between different countries... which Britain needs, because we don't produce everything we need... and that call for unity clashes really badly with current politics.
But them's the breaks. Pandemics don't give a fuck about Brexit. If anything, it makes it easier for them as it erodes cooperation, goodwill and information-sharing....more
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