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Explore a selection of publications by alumni and academics, and books with a link to the University or Cambridge

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Today We Die A Little

Today We Die A Little: The Rise and Fall of Emil Zátopek, Olympic Legend

Richard Askwith (Trinity 1977)

"Today We Die A Little: The Rise and Fall of Emil Zátopek, Olympic Legend" is an attempt to tell the full, extraordinary story of Emil Zátopek, the Czechoslovak soldier who in the decade following the Second World War revolutionised distance-running – and became an international symbol of decency and courage. He won four Olympic golds (three in the space of eight days – including his first ever attempt at a marathon); set 18 world records; and went undefeated over 10,000 metres for six years. In doing so, he redefined the boundaries of human endurance.

The Voices Within

The Voices Within

Charles Fernyhough (Queens' 1986)

We all hear voices. Ordinary thinking is often a kind of conversation, filling our heads with speech: the voices of reason, of memory, of self-encouragement and rebuke, the inner dialogue that helps us with tough decisions or complicated problems. For others - voice-hearers, trauma-sufferers and prophets - the voices seem to come from outside: friendly voices, malicious ones, the voice of God or the Devil, the muses of art and literature.

Bamboo Island

Bamboo Island

Ann Bennett (Girton 1981)

Malaysia 1962: Juliet Crosby, a plantation owner’s wife, has lived a reclusive life on her Malaysian rubber plantation since the Second World War robbed her of everyone she loved.

The sudden appearance of a young woman from Indonesia disrupts her lonely existence and stirs up unsettling memories. Together they embark on a journey to Singapore and Indonesia to uncover secrets buried for more than twenty years.

Bamboo Heart

Bamboo Heart

Ann Bennett (Girton 1981)

Thailand, 1943: Thomas Ellis, captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore, is a prisoner-of-war on the Death Railway. In stifling heat he endures endless days of clearing jungle, breaking stone and lugging wood. He must stay alive, although he is struck down by disease and tortured by Japanese guards, and he must stay strong, although he is starving and exhausted. For Tom has made himself a promise: to return home. Not to the grey streets of London, where he once lived, but to Penang, where he found paradise and love.

Ambition: why it's good to want more and how to get it

Ambition: why it's good to want more and how to get it

Rachel Bridge (Emmanuel 1986)

Ever have that nagging feeling that you are better than the sum of your current achievements? Do you have a secret desire to be achieving much more, to change the world or to reach the top of your game?

Shakespeare in Swahililand cover

Shakespeare in Swahililand

Dr Edward Wilson-Lee (Sidney Sussex 2006)

Published to commemorate 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in April 2016, a breathtaking exploration into Shakespeare as a global poet.

The Weaver Fish

The Weaver Fish

Robert Edeson (Trinity Hall 1980)

Cambridge linguist Edvard Tøssentern reappears after a balloon crash in which he is presumed to have died. When he staggers in from a remote swamp, gravely ill and swollen beyond recognition, his colleagues at the research station are overjoyed. But Edvard’s discovery about a rare giant bird throws them all into the path of an international crime ring.

The Mechanical Mind of John Coggin

The Mechanical Mind of John Coggin

Elinor Teele (Corpus 2001)

Roald Dahl meets The Penderwicks in this quirky, humorous, whimsical, and heartwarming middle grade debut about two siblings who run away from home to escape working in the family coffin business.

Great Interactions: Life with learning disabilities and autism

Great Interactions: Life with learning disabilities and autism

Author: Polly Braden. Project Editor: Rashmi Becker (Selwyn 1995)

There are around 1.5 million people in the UK with a learning disability and 700,000 with autism. In partnership with Project Editor Rashmi Becker, Polly Braden spent two years travelling the UK photographing people with disabilities. Her photographs look at the everyday moments, achievements and milestones. The subject is complex but the aim is simple: to highlight everyday interactions and life-changing experiences.

A Man of Genius

A Man of Genius

Janet Todd (Newnham 1961)

A literary novel of 1819, set in London and Venice, where a successful Gothic writer battles emotional dependency and suffers the complexity of obsession.

Business Coaching and Mentoring For Dummies

Business Coaching and Mentoring For Dummies

Marie Taylor (St Catharine's 2001) and Steve Crabb

Business Coaching & Mentoring For Dummies is an essential resource for business owners, business leaders, coaches, and mentors who want to take their skills to the next level.

Rebel of the Sands

Rebel of the Sands

Alwyn Hamilton (King's 2006)

Sold immediately at auction across the world, this phenomenal novel is the first in a trilogy packed with shooting contests, train robberies, festivals under the stars, powerful Djinni magic and an electrifying love story. This promises to be a global super lead.

How to Have a Good Day

How to Have a Good Day

Caroline Webb (Christ's 1989)

In How to Have a Good Day, economist and former McKinsey partner Caroline Webb shows readers how to use recent findings from behavioral economics, psychology, and neuroscience to transform our approach to everyday working life.

 

My Spirit Sang All Day: A Life in Music

My Spirit Sang All Day: A Life in Music

Elizabeth Werry (Girton 1955)

A memoir of a life in music. Elizabeth Werry, pianist, harpsichordist and organist, was born shortly before the Second World War, and has been immersed in music since childhood. From early beginnings at Dartington, she spent seven years in Canada, returning to England at the age of eleven to complete her education in London and at Cambridge. A pupil of Harold Craxton, Harold Darke, David Willcocks and Thurston Dart, she became a fine chamber music play and worked with many of the most distinguished musicians of her generation. She has taught widely since her schooldays and her pupils are now all over the world.

A Sense of Power - The Roots of America's Global Role

A Sense of Power - The Roots of America's Global Role

John Thompson

Why has the United States assumed so extensive and costly a role in world affairs over the last hundred years? The two most common answers to this question are "because it could" and "because it had to." Neither answer will do, according to this challenging re-assessment of the way that America came to assume its global role. The country's vast economic resources gave it the capacity to exercise great influence abroad, but Americans were long reluctant to meet the costs of wielding that power. Neither the country's safety from foreign attack nor its economic well-being required the achievement of ambitious foreign policy objectives.

The Penultimate Curiosity

The Penultimate Curiosity

Roger Wagner and Andrew Briggs (Queens 1973)

The Penultimate Curiosity, How Science Swims in the Slipstream of Ultimate Questions: When young children first begin to ask 'why?' they embark on a journey with no final destination. The need to make sense of the world as a whole is an ultimate curiosity that lies at the root of all human religions. It has, in many cultures, shaped and motivated a more down to earth scientific interest in the physical world, which could therefore be described as penultimate curiosity. These two manifestations of curiosity have a history of connection that goes back deep into the human past. Tracing that history all the way from cave painting to quantum physics, this book (a collaboration between a painter and a physical scientist that uses illustrations throughout the narrative) sets out to explain the nature of the long entanglement between religion and science: the ultimate and the penultimate curiosity.

People with Multiple Sclerosis

People with Multiple Sclerosis

Paul Bull (Downing 1974)

People with Multiple Sclerosis: Condition, Challenges and Care: Multiple sclerosis is a serious, disabling, progressive and incurable neurological condition with a reputation for generating unemployment, poverty, social isolation and an early death.  This book explores whether this portrait is more hyperbole than reality.  In so doing it demonstrates that much of the research undertaken to date on the lives of people with multiple sclerosis is limited in both quantity and quality. There is an almost empty research territory here ripe for colonisation.

For the Most Beautiful

For the Most Beautiful

Emily Hauser (Gonville & Caius 2009)

Three thousand years ago a war took place that gave birth to legends - to Achilles, the greatest of the Greeks, and Hector, prince of Troy. It was a war that shook the very foundations of the world. But what if there was more to this epic conflict? What if there was another, hidden tale of the Trojan War? Now is the time for the women of Troy to tell their story.

Veronica's Papers

Veronica's Papers

A. Colin Wright (Pembroke 1958)

Gerald Clayton, suffering from amnesia, receives a package of papers from Veronica, a former clinical hypnotist: learning that they accomplished his fantasy of gathering together past loves (on a ship), with themselves present but unrecognized. Gerald himself doesn’t know what caused his loss of memory for two years, and “his” passengers are invited to share the mystery by guessing what, or who, they have in common. This is related to the whole mystery of God’s creation, and who is paying for the trip: the enigmatic Deus ex macchina.

Sod 60! The Guide to Living Well

Sod 60! The Guide to Living Well

Claire Parker (Clare 1972) and Muir Gray

SOD 60 is about health, wellbeing and resilience in our 60s and beyond. Getting fitter and staying fitter is the key. But we need to overturn false assumptions about ageing- so it’s a book about activity AND attitude- how to get more physically and mentally active but also how to create a positive, socially engaged ‘can do’ attitude. And it’s about learning to be still and attentive too, when that is necessary.

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