I’ve been waiting twelve years
for a new book from this remarkable man, and it’s every bit as brilliant as I had
hoped for.
Many years ago, Nicholas Humphrey was decent enough to allow me to
dedicate one of my novels to him, owing to a thematic connection with his work.
This new book offered me so much: a fascinating read, a distillation of his
life and work, a passionate defence of human evolution, and a quick-footed
opposition to dull philosophers. It explains why our lives matter to us and how, over two hundred million years of evolution, that circumstance came
about. There’s even a cute dog at the end! It's impossible to recommend too highly.
We feel therefore we are. Conscious sensations ground our sense of self. They are essential to our idea of ourselves as psychic beings: present, existent, and mattering. But is it only humans who feel this way? Do other animals? Will future machines? To answer these questions we need a scientific understanding of consciousness: what it is and why it has evolved. Nicholas Humphrey has been researching these issues for fifty years. In this extraordinary book, weaving together intellectual adventure, cutting-edge science, and his own breakthrough experiences, he tells the story of his quest to uncover the evolutionary history of consciousness:…
After four phases of feminism, we still find ourselves in a world
dominated not just by men but by male ideas. I saw this book on the bookshop
shelf and knew it was a definite-buy.
The book spoke to me because I’m a human
being. It’s obvious what is going on in the world – that men are exploiting
their position for selfish ends, at the expense of women but also of themselves.
This book demolishes the unspoken assumptions of patriarchy by showing, with
full evidence, the variety of social organisation – humane social organisation
– that is possible. Men and women are equal. It’s just a matter of vision.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2023
'I learned something new on every page of this totally essential book' Sathnam Sanghera
'By thinking about gendered inequality as rooted in something unalterable within us, we fail to see it for what it is: something more fragile that has had to be constantly remade and reasserted.'
In this bold and radical book, award-winning science journalist Angela Saini goes in search of the true roots of gendered oppression, uncovering a complex history of how male domination became embedded in societies and spread across the globe from prehistory into the present.
I saw this in a charity shop. My partner and I had been watching a number
of Dickens adaptions, and my interest was piqued. Then I put it back,
uncertain. Then I picked it up again because I realised I did want to know
more about Charles Dickens.
But the book turned out to be about much more than
that cherished author; it’s about the relationship between personal
psychological pain and the brilliance of creativity. It theorises that, without his
anguished childhood, Dickens would not have been so brilliant an author. This
book speaks to everyone who wishes to tell tales, me included.
A Book of the Year in The Times & Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Spectator, Irish Times and TLS.
'Superb' Daily Mail, 'Book of the Week'
'Brilliant' The Times, 'Book of the Week'
'[A] vivid, detailed account' Guardian, 'Book of the Week'
'Hugely enjoyable' Daily Telegraph
'Fascinating' Spectator
Charles Dickens was a superb public performer, a great orator and one of the most famous of the Eminent Victorians. Slight of build, with a frenzied, hyper-energetic personality, Dickens looked much older than his fifty-eight years when he died. Although he specified an unpretentious funeral, it was inevitable that crowds flocked to his…
Consciousness & the
Human Condition is an ongoing series of
Substack posts on all aspects of the evolution of consciousness, the nature of
it, and the character of the human condition.
It is free to subscribe to. Posts
appear every Friday. Topics so far have included qualia, the uncanny valley, political
narcissism, cave painting, and children’s faces.
My Substack reaches far back
into Palaeolithic prehistory but is also sparkling and up-to-date regarding
advances, controversies, and ideas in the field of consciousness research.
