Chooks away!
31 Jan 2012
Annie Potts, author of Chicken, has been interviewed by Kim Hill on New Zealand National Radio's Saturday Morning programme. To hear the interview please click here.
Sounds good
01 Jan 2012
Reaktion is delighted to announce a new music series, 'Reverb'. Books in the series offer new insights on the distinctive character of music made in a particular place – how Nick Drake's beguiling folksongs are associated with notions of Englishness, for example, or how the exuberant rock of Van Halen is rooted in the Beat, Zen and romantic movements of 70s southern California.
Series editor John Scanlan has a blog with more information about the series, together with gleanings from the music world. To read John Scanlan's blog please click here.
Earth Series
01 Jan 2012
Reaktion Books is delighted to announce a new series 'Earth', edited by Daniel Allen.
Written by experts who are passionate about their subject, the series is the first of its kind to trace the historical and cultural significance of the Earth's natural features and resources. Subjects covered will include 'Clouds', 'Desert', 'Snow', 'Air', 'Wildfire', 'Volcano', 'Gold', 'Jade' and 'Diamond', and each title will be beautifully illustrated throughout with c. 100 colour and black-and-white images.
Daniel Allen has a blog with more information about forthcoming titles in the series. To read his blog please click here.
Left-handed Compliments
05 Dec 2011
'Let’s get one thing straight: It’s not weird that 10 percent of the human population is left-handed. It's weird that 90 percent is right-handed. In all other animals that show handedness (or pawedness or flipperedness), the split is virtually even. So why are humans so lopsided?'
To read the full review please click here.
The Staff of Life
29 Nov 2011
'The artisanal baker gives life to every batch, using sensitive raw materials in an often capricious environment that requires constant adjustment, vigilance and patience. That is the beauty and the intrigue of his creation: It does not offer assembly-line sameness. Honeyed spice to the nose one day, it may present a velvety dried apricot scent the next. But the interior of the loaf—the crumb, as opposed to the crust—will always bear witness to the artisanal fermentation technique with a multiplicity of cavities of various sizes engraved in its voluptuous flesh.'
To read the full review please click here.
Whiskey Down Under
26 Sep 2011
Kevin Kosar has been interviewed about Whiskey on Radio New Zealand's This Way Up programme. To listen to the interview please click here.
Edible digest
16 Sep 2011
We are very pleased to announce an Edible series blog. To learn more about the Edible series of books, and the authors behind them, please visit http://edible-series.blogspot.com/
Animals in the Star
22 Aug 2011
The Animal series reviewed by the Toronto Star:
'We’re suckers for what we call Big Little Books. These are short histories of stuff. Or ideas. Biographies. We especially like them when handsomely packaged in a series; that tweaks our book fetish. One of our favourite series right now hails from England, courtesy Reaktion Books . . . It’s called Animal.'
To read the full review please click here.
The Realms of Oceanus and Poseidon
22 Aug 2011
Bernd Brunner's The Ocean at Home reviewed in the Los Angeles Times:
'With The Ocean At Home: An Illustrated History of the Aquarium [Brunner] turns to the common aquarium and finds an electrifying nexus of human obsessions – with cabinets and curiosities, a passion for exploration and scientific discovery and an abiding fear of (and love for) the ocean.'
To read the full review please click here.
Rankin with Nairne
22 Aug 2011
Ian Rankin speaks with Sandy Nairne, author of Art Theft on BBC's The Culture Show.
To watch the interview please click here.
Lifting the lid on Lobster
18 Aug 2011
Elisabeth Townsend talks about the research behind Lobster with Boston.com's Nancy Shohet West:
'"One predominant surprise for me was learning about all the ways lobsters have been cooked and preserved over the years,’’ said Townsend. From the standpoint of today’s culinary standards, whereby the taste of lobster is savored, she found it strange to come across so many recipes in which the lobster meat is “almost unrecognizable.’’
Townsend can reel off numerous examples. “Lobster thermidor, covered in a heavy bechamel cream sauce. Lobster in mustard sauce. Lobster simmered in vinegar, cumin, and even beef stock.’’ The latter was because the cooks believed lobster wasn’t substantial enough by itself, Townsend explained, so they literally beefed it up.'
To read the full interview please click here.
The Fascinating, Infuriating Coco Chanel
08 Aug 2011
Linda Simon, author of Coco Chanel, describes the iconic, yet contradictory designer in The Huffington Post:
'What I learned along the way, as I researched the life of this fascinating and infuriating woman, surprised me: women had been liberated from the corset long before Chanel arrived on the scene . . . Her little black dress – which I had pictured as low-cut and body-skimming – had long sleeves, a loose dropped waistline, and looked like it should be worn for a board meeting rather than a nightclub in the Roaring Twenties . . . Famous as she was, she could be paranoid and cruel. She lied to cover a past of which she was ashamed; she lied to cover her own insecurities.'
To read the full article please click here.
Art Sleuthing, Shady Lawyers and Encounters with the Underworld
05 Aug 2011
Sandy Nairne's Art Theft is a first-hand account of the theft, pursuit and recovery of two J.M.W. Turners stolen from Tate Britain.
From Artinfo.com:
'Nairne's book – a tell-all in the mold of Thomas Hoving's "Making the Mummies Dance" – is causing controversy because of what it reveals about the Tate's handling of the crisis. Operating in a gray area between the unethical and the illegal, the museum managed to come out of the affair millions of pounds richer, with both paintings intact.'
To read the full review please click here.
Turners, Thefts and Thieves
03 Aug 2011
Tim Franks interviews Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, who orchestrated the return of two highly valuable J.M.W. Turner paintings after they were stolen while on loan to a German gallery. Sandy Nairne tells the full story of the eight-year, cloak-and-dagger pursuit of the Turners, as well as the issue of art theft and the portrayal of art thieves in film and literature, in his new book Art Theft.
To watch the interview please click here.
The Lobsters went in, two by two
27 Jul 2011
Lobster and Lobster reviewed by The Boston Globe.
'Both small but informative books are lavishly illustrated, with photos, charts, and things like 19th-century Japanese woodcuts depicting lobsters and Dutch Renaissance still lifes prominently displaying, well, lobster.'
To read the full review please click here.
Ellen de Bruin on Dutch Women, Happiness and Stupidity
15 Jul 2011
Dutch science journalist Ellen de Bruin, author of Dutch Women Don’t Get Depressed recommends her top five books to The Browser. Amongst them is Matthijs van Boxsell's The Encyclopedia of Stupidity.
'[Matthijs van Boxsel's] main theory is that, unlike other animals, people are self-destructive by nature. If you are self-destructive, you need to evolve some kind of ability to overcome all the bad things that you do to yourself – and that is what he calls intelligence. As a species, human beings have to overcome their own stupidity by becoming intelligent, according to him. I really like that theory.'
To read the full interview please click here.
Africa Exposed
14 Jul 2011
Erin Haney, author of Photography and Africa, has been interviewed by Nicholas Walton of The New Books Network. To listen to the interview please click here.
'The ocean scooped up into our living rooms'
11 Jul 2011
The Telegraph's Phillip Hoare reviews The Ocean at Home: An Illustrated History of the Aquarium.
'The aquarium is a microcosm of the sea, a bit of the ocean scooped up into our living rooms. Bernd Brunner’s slim but fascinating and beautifully illustrated book sets out to explore the history of this phenomenon, which he memorably describes as “Noah’s ark in reverse”. In the process, Brunner, a German writer of measured, slyly humorous tones, reveals much about how we relate to our greater environment.'
To read the full review please click here.Contemplating Crustacea
07 Jun 2011
Dawn Drzal reviews Lobster (Animal) and Lobster (Edible) in the New York Times.
'King’s witty and erudite portrait, illustrated with a wealth of images that demonstrate his passionate knowledge of his subject, may leave us feeling that the lobster deserves to be treated with more dignity. But provided our dinner has been traditionally caught, rapidly delivered and responsibly prepared, this book should only enhance our enjoyment.'
To read the full review please click here.
Lobster Tales
31 May 2011
Jasper White reviews Lobster (Edible series) and Lobster (Animal series) in the Wall Street Journal.
'Both of these books are skillfully written, and the subject is so vast that there is actually little overlap between the two. I wish that they both had existed before I wrote my treatise on cooking lobsters 13 years ago; I certainly would have used them as a reference.
Most of all, these books remind us that our long relationship with lobsters is tied up with our relationships with one another. I grew up eating lobsters on the Jersey Shore and in the years since have cooked many thousands of the creatures for my fellow humans. I can promise you that all the wonderful "lobsterology" contained in these books will only serve to whet your appetite for the main course.'
To read the full review please click here.
Ruminating on Animals
24 May 2011
Jonathan Burt, Editor of the Animal series, has been interviewed about the series in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
'The sometimes unsettling encounter with a real flesh-and-blood specimen of an animal—or, for that matter, the absence of one—is a recurring literary conceit at the beginning of many volumes in the series. Beginning with Boria Sax's Crow in 2003 and extending to Hare, by Simon Carnell, Animal now comprises 34 volumes, each dedicated to a sort of hybrid natural and cultural biography of a specific creature. Some, like Dog and Horse and Cow, have focused on familiar, even cuddly animals, but the majority have spanned a more esoteric and exotic range of mammalia and avian species—with books devoted to bears, peacocks, falcons, and rats—as well as fish, reptiles, and insects.'
To read the full interview please click here.Otterly Brilliant
18 Feb 2011
'Did you know that the otter is J. K. Rowling’s favourite animal? Or that the earliest evidence of its existence dates back 20 million years? Or that the fur of the sea otter is the densest in the animal kingdom? All these and numerous other intriguing snippets of otter lore are contained within a beautifully presented volume as charming and captivating as its subject matter.'
To read the full review please click here.Read Red Wine
02 Feb 2011
'Varriano's beautifully illustrated and detailed study shows how wine has inspired us in art, literature and religion. It is the perfect drinking companion.'
To read the full review please click here.Done to a T
24 Jan 2011
Why, when we drink plenty of it, do we not cook with tea? Bee Wilson investigates.
The best things between sliced bread
07 Jan 2011
'In 2005, Ruth Reichl, then the most powerful food writer in the US, visited England. As editor of Gourmet magazine, Reichl ate at all the glitziest restaurants, enjoying feasts cooked by the likes of Gordon and Heston. But the meal she rated above all others was a simple toasted cheddar and onion sandwich from Borough Market. It was, she said, the “best thing” she ate during her entire visit.
In retrospect, Reichl's verdict confirmed that our attitude to sandwiches was changing. Farewell, Spam and pickle in Tupperware on a rainy day; hello, pecorino sardo and artichokes on ciabatta (as served at Rosie's deli in Brixton). Finally we were starting to realise the pleasurable possibilities in the most widely exported of all British dishes. Fast forward five years and London has become a truly exciting place to eat something between two slices of bread. We are the new sandwich generation. Our greatest invention has come home.'
To read the full article please click here.
Sippin' with F. Sot Fitzgerald
17 Dec 2010
Kevin R. Kosar talks about whiskey with Todd Kliman of The Washingtonian.
TK: 'So why not a book about gin?'
KK: 'I pondered a gin book. Gin is a terrific spirit, but whiskey is a bigger and more complex topic. For one thing, there are so many types of whiskey – bourbon, corn whiskey, Irish whiskey, Scotch whisky, rye. Each is its own thing with its own flavor and history.'
To read the full interview please click here.
A Spirited Debate
09 Dec 2010
Kevin R. Kosar, author of Whiskey, has been interviewed by Nick Schulz of the American Enterprise Insitute. To view the video please click here.
A Series of Tubes
29 Nov 2010
Johnny Ryan's A History of the Internet has been reviewed in The Toronto Star.
To read the review please click here.
The Endgame of Modernism?
05 Nov 2010
Miles Glendinning's Architecture's Evil Empire? reviewed in The Independent:
'Glendinning's polemic, Architecture's Evil Empire?, argues that the "spectacularisation" of architecture creates alienated places and people. Late 20th-century modernist architecture's failure to give form to a humane socio-industrial revolution collapsed in the 1980s and 1990s into a veneration of inherently capitalist design geniuses. Their arbitrarily flamboyant buildings have little social or historical integrity. Glendinning marshals his arguments deftly and his quoted material burns bright.'
To read the full review please click here.
Food for Thought
18 Oct 2010
The 50 most notable sandwiches in the world, as described by Bee Wilson in Sandwich: A Global History. To see a slideshow of the top 50, together with text by the author, please click here and then click on 'play slideshow'.
Mine's a large one
07 Oct 2010
Whiskey by Kevin R. Kosar has been reviewed in the Washington Post. To read the review please click here.
Theme Park Ups and Downs
06 Oct 2010
Scott Lukas, author of Theme Park, has been interviewed by Coaster101.com. To read the interview please click here.
Sky-clad in Canada and the FT
09 Aug 2010
'[Philip Carr-Gomm] offers a sustained mediation on the spiritual, cultural and political implications of being naked in public.'
– The Star, TorontoTo read the full review please click here.
To read Nicholas Spencer's review in the Financial Times please click here.
Of Mice and Men (and Women)
20 Jul 2010
To listen to the podcast on BBC's website please click here.
Gleefully machine-gunning the reader
28 Jun 2010
'In this small book, Irwin has crammed an astonishing amount of information about dromedaries (camels with a single hump) and Bactrians (camels with two). He writes in snappy sentences, gleefully machine-gunning the reader with facts and anecdotes, delivered with an undertone of dry wit. He tells us what to look for when you're buying a camel and, when your relationship sours, how to cook her. Most usefully, he also reveals the best way to defend yourself against the advances of an angry camel: "Rip off your clothes and throw them before him. He may accept this as propriation".'
To read the full review please click here.
Boxing clever
01 Jun 2010
'How and why writers have written about boxing since Homer's The Iliad with award winning writer Thomas Hauser, whose latest novel fictionalises a nail-biting championship fight.'
To listen to the full programme please click here.
The Gospel of Ventilation
25 May 2010
'Being naked in public can be fun, or naughty, or provocative, or health-giving, or political. It is almost always illegal. And, as anyone who has visited a nudist resort can testify, it is rarely, if ever, sexy. But, as Philip Carr-Gomm reveals in his academic romp through two millenniums of public exhibitionism from the ancient Greeks to animal-rights activists, you can be naked anywhere. You are only nude if someone is watching. Nakedness on its own is straightforward – it’s the context and the audience of nudity that make it interesting.'
To read the full review please click here.
Naked in The New Yorker
20 May 2010
'Nudity is our most basic state, yet there are few things that cause the same extreme mixture of titillation and horror. Still, if one looks closely, it’s everywhere. Mass nude weddings with as many as sixty couples take place every year at the Hedonism resort in Jamaica. There’s nude sky diving and nude boxing (so-called “bouncy boxing”) in Australia, nude skiers in Austria (brr), nude synchronized swimming in Spain, strip poker, naked flights (no hot drinks are served, to prevent scalding), organized nudism, anarchic streaking, Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl. Why does donning the birthday suit get us in such a tizzy? I recently wrote to Philip Carr-Gomm, a psychotherapist, writer, and author of A Brief History of Nakedness, to ask his opinion.'
To read the full interview please click here.
Bookshop discussion of 'Hare'
15 Mar 2010
For those of you who
Hare Today, Hare Tomorrow
05 Mar 2010
Simon Carnell, Author of the newly-published 'Hare' in the Animal series, will be discussing and celebrating this creature at Topping and Company Booksellers of Ely, Cambridgeshire on 18 March. Please visit the bookshop's website for more details.:
http://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/ely-events/simon-carnell/
I Am Oyster, Eat Me Raw
01 Mar 2010
Barbara J. King reviews Oyster and other Animal series titles on www.bookslut.com:
'"The oyster, raw food of both epicure and savage, from the sea, looking at the same time both like an open wound and sexual organs, reminiscent of the translucence of flesh and bodily fluids, sits on that border between culture and nature and between male and female, between land and sea, between cooked and raw.”
Passages like this one, nestled in the midst of a chapter called “Oyster Flesh: Desire and Abjection”, show why I’m addicted to London-based Reaktion Books’s Animal Series. Oyster – like the counterpart volumes Ape and Penguin that I’ve greedily devoured already, and presumably like the Whale, Elephant, and Cat editions basking on my bookshelf-in-waiting – offers sumptuous portions of natural and cultural history so surprising and visually gorgeous that readers will never again see the book’s focal animal in the way they had before.'
To read the full review please click here.
The Pre-masticated Bolus of Bovinity
25 Feb 2010
Edward Bottone's diatribe against the hamburger:
'You give the game away when you order: I’ll just have the burger, with ________ (insert topping) and French fries. Love and marriage, horse and carriage, burger and fries. You know what you are doing; denigrating cuisine, American cultural identity and defiling the planet — nothing less. But these are not the only reasons that I have had it with hamburger.'
To read the full article please click here.
Andrew F. Smith's Hamburger, of course, would disagree.
Let Them Eat Pancake
24 Feb 2010
Ken Albala's Pancake reviewed in The New Yorker Magazine.
'My favorite parts of Albala’s book are the tantalizing descriptions of the greasy substances suitable for frying pancakes. Butter, he writes, is best, but lard, duck fat, oil, and bacon grease also work in a pinch.'
To read the full review please click here.
A Hot Topic Down Under
10 Feb 2010
Colleen Taylor Sen, author of Curry, has been interviewed on Radio New Zealand's This Way Up programme.
To listen to the interview please click here.
Manhood review
25 Jan 2010
'This vastly entertaining, eclectic book . . . is full of myths, lore, natural history and medical information about the male nether regions.'
To read the full review please click here.
A Spicy Conversation
18 Jan 2010
Colleen Taylor Sen, author of Curry, in conversation with Yvonne Lau on the ConversAsians TV show.
Running reviewed
12 Jan 2010
'As well as being vital to our early survival, running is a universal form of play, as this fascinating study shows', writes Christopher McDougall in The Observer.
To read the full review please click here
Chili, Isn't It?
23 Dec 2009
Morris on Owl
09 Dec 2009
Desmond Morris speaks about his fascination for owls, and why they prompted him to write his new book Owl. He shows how owls are the supreme nocturnal predator, describing their extraordinary eyesight, acute hearing, silent flight and unique talons. He also talks about how owls have a dual symbolism, both loved as symbols of wisdom, and feared as silent, pitiless hunters of the night.
Nibbling at the Edibles
08 Dec 2009
The Edible series from Reaktion books explores the rich history of food – and the pleasure it gives us. Each title in the series focuses on one food, drink or ingredient, exploring its orgin, evolution, and spread around the world, as well as what it represents to the people who consume it. In addition, each book includes a variety of recipes.
Our US publicist Carrie Adams recently decided to try her hand at making recipes from books in the series. Click the links to see how she gets on making latkes, pizza, hamburgers and cornish pasties.
Talking about Animals
26 Nov 2009
Jonathan Burt, Editor of the Animal series and author of Rat, will be in conversation with Peter Williams, author of Snail, and Kevin Jackson, author of Moose, about their books and the Animal series.
Desmond Morris will also appear to sign his new book Owl.
Blackwell bookshop Oxford, Thurs 26 November at 7pm, tickets £2 (redeemable for a glass of wine).
Full details here (scroll down to view)
Born to Run
23 Nov 2009
Mathew Syed reviews Running: A Global History for The Times
'It is the attempts by Gotaas to get beneath the surface of running that provide the book’s most revelatory moments.'
For the full review please click here
Owl Dreaming
19 Nov 2009
'Owl, newly published this past October by Reaktion Books, covers the biology, history, legends, interpretation in art and literature, as well as various cultural myths on each continent about owls. Reaktion is a British publisher with a series of animal books linking science to fantasy. Next on my list: Cat, Snake, and Swan. The layout is brilliant; every tidbit about owls, or whichever animal of choice, is in one book. This series is an academic's wet dream.'
Read the full review here
Review of the Edible series
18 Nov 2009
"Knowing the provenance of your food is all the rage these days. Locavores eat only what is grown and produced close to home. Manufacturers tout their fair-trade-certified ingredients (so eco-friendly!), and chefs generate favorable buzz by serving sustainable, trackable seafood. It seems reasonable, then, that tracing cheese to Egyptian jars circa 3100 B.C. would help sate our collective hunger for information. And while we're at it, what about understanding the spread of curry to the Caribbean or the supposed link between chocolate and romance?"
Read the full article here
Travels with Bob
17 Nov 2009
Robert Harbison is launching Travels in the History of Architecture on Thursday 19 November at the Department of Architecture and Spatial Design, London Metropolitan University. The launch will feature photographs by Esther Whitby.
Full information here
Invented Knowledge
10 Nov 2009
Check out Invented Knowledge author Ron Fritze's website – a wealth of information about history and pseudo-history.
Our mollusc of the moment!
30 Oct 2009
Christopher Hirst in The Independent has reviewed Snail by Peter Williams.
Read the review here
Chronicle of Higher Education on Reaktion's Animal series
18 Oct 2009
'At the beginning of Moose, one of the most recent additions to the Animal series published by Reaktion Books, Kevin Jackson recounts the disappointments of a commercial moose-watching vacation he took years ago in Maine, in which hours of puttering around the waters of an ice-cold lake yielded a grainy, barely perceptible image through his binoculars.'
Read the full article here
