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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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The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book

James Raven (Clare 1978)

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book reveals the history of books in all their various forms, from the ancient world to the digital present.

The Lonely Century

The Lonely Century: Coming Together in a World that's Pulling Apart

Noreena Hertz

Even before a global pandemic introduced us to terms like social distancing, loneliness was well on its way to becoming the defining condition of the twenty-first century.

Combining a decade of research with first-hand reporting, Noreena Hertz takes us from ‘renting a friend’ in New York to Belgian far right festivals replete with face-painting and bouncy castles, from elderly women knitting bonnets for their robot caregivers in Japan to isolated remote workers in London during lockdown.

The Big Book of Wisdom

The Big Book of Wisdom

Larry Culliford (St Catharine's 1968)

The Big Book of Wisdom describes how to grow through adversity towards maturity, and so make an enduring personal contribution towards a safer, more peaceful, cleaner, happier world. Appealing uniquely to both spiritual and secular-minded people, combining scientific findings with logical and intuitive reasoning, this short book takes engaged readers are taken on a fulfilling journey towards wisdom by looking at: What is it? Why we need it... And how to get it. If short, why 'big'? Because there are ideas here for everyone that cover more or less everything.

Matisse: The Books

Matisse: The Books

Louise Rogers Lalaurie (Queens' 1982)

Generously illustrated with archival images and new photography, Matisse: The Books offers an unprecedented insight into the experience of reading – and looking at – Matisse’s books and brings new clarity to a controversial period in the artist’s life.

A Throne Of Swans

A Throne Of Swans

Katharine (Sidney Sussex 1989) and Elizabeth Corr

The first part of a new YA fantasy duology, loosely inspired by Swan Lake.

When her father dies just before her eighteenth birthday, Aderyn inherites the role of Protector of Atratys, a dominion in a kingdom where nobles can transform into birds. Aderyn's ancestral bird is a swan. But she has not been able to transform for years, not since witnessing the brutal death of her mother. Aderyn must venture into the malevolent heart of the Citadel in order to seek the truth about the attack that killed her mother and to fight for the land she has vowed to protect.

The Butchers

The Butchers

Ruth Gilligan (Caius 2006)

A feminist, folkloric murder mystery set in the Irish borderlands during the 1996 BSE crisis.

A photograph is hung on a gallery wall for the very first time since it was taken two decades before. It shows a slaughter house in rural Ireland, a painting of the Virgin Mary on the wall, a meat hook suspended from the ceiling - and, from its sharp point, the lifeless body of a man hanging by his feet.

Somerville's War

Somerville's War

Andrew Duncan (Trinity Hall 1971)

The strange brigadier who hardly speaks... Leo, his feisty pilot daughter... Labrador, the vengeful Pole... Henry Dunning-Green, Leo's boring suitor... Adrian Russell, the treacherous master spy... ... All linked by SOE Somerville, the top secret Second World War finishing school for spies on England's south coast, and its local community: A melting pot of intrigue and counter-intrigue. A fast-unfolding, untold tale of deception, betrayal and romance leading to a tense life-or-death climax in occupied France. Many of the events actually took place.

An Elephant in Rome: Bernini, The Pope, And The Making Of The Eternal City

An Elephant in Rome: Bernini, The Pope, And The Making Of The Eternal City

Loyd Grossman (Magdalene 2008)

In 1655, a new Pope, Alexander VII, fired with religious zeal, political guile and a mania for building, determined to restore the prestige of his church by making Rome the must-visit destination for Europe's elite. To help him do so, he enlisted the talents of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, already celebrated as the most important artist of the age.

Poems from Life as it Happens

Poems from Life as it Happens

Jane Ross (St Edmund's 1982)

An anthology steeped in the rural Battle River region of western Canada. Rich with the words of known and unknown poets, the book evokes inescapable reflections on landscape, history and peoples. They point to the unrevealed with its sinewy tensions and silent cries. Life, as it happens in this anthology, considers the other kingdoms: trees and snow and the creatures who live within the stunning embrace of the vast prairie terrain and its under land.

Portraying Pregnancy: from Holbein to Social Media

Portraying Pregnancy: from Holbein to Social Media

Karen Hearn (Girton 1972)

This book offers a new lens through which to look at history and art history, by rethinking the context in which portraits of women have been made over 500 years. Although up to the early 20th century many women spent most of their adult years being pregnant, their pregnancies are seldom made apparent in surviving portraits.   'Portraying Pregnancy' considers the different ways in which a sitter’s pregnancy was, or was not, visibly represented to the viewer.    

The Mountbattens: Their Lives & Loves

The Mountbattens: Their Lives & Loves

Andrew Lownie (Magdalene 1981)

The intimate story of a unique marriage that spans the heights of glamour and power to infidelity, manipulation and disaster through the heart of the 20th century.

Dickie Mountbatten: A major figure behind his nephew Philip's marriage to Queen Elizabeth II and instrumental in the Royal Family taking the Mountbatten name, he was Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia during World War II and the last Viceroy of India.

Understanding Ugly: Human Response to Buildings in the Environment

Understanding Ugly: Human Response to Buildings in the Environment

Ian Ellingham (St Edmund's 1993)

The book explores research about the visual factors that determine how a building is received - sometimes esteemed by one group and despised by another. It creates a synthesis of decades of insightful research and provides insights into what factors contribute to a building being perceived as delightful. While it is of particular interest to anyone who creates or manages buildings or cities, it is written in a non-technical style so as to be accessible and entertaining to anyone who takes an interest in the buildings and urban spaces that we inhabit.

Audrey Orr and the Robot Rage

Audrey Orr and the Robot Rage

Jenny Moore (Selwyn 1994)

Ever wished there was more than one of you to go round? Need to be in two places at once?

When Audrey Orr’s mum wins a luxury cruise to Norway, Audrey thinks she’s won the jackpot – until she realises it’s during term-time. With her no-nonsense headteacher, Mr Stickler, on her case, she has to resort to something a bit unusual: a robot clone! But can she trust Awesome the clone to stay home and pretend to be her or will Awesome turn out to be a bit… Awful?

Anglo-Saxonism and the Idea of Englishness in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Anglo-Saxonism and the Idea of Englishness in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Dustin Frazier Wood (Darwin 2005)

Long before they appeared in the pages of Ivanhoe and nineteenth-century Old English scholarship, the Anglo-Saxons had become commonplace in Georgian Britain. The eighteenth century - closely associated with Neoclassicism and the Gothic and Celtic revivals - also witnessed the emergence of intertwined scholarly and popular Anglo-Saxonisms that helped to define what it meant to be English.

Sacred Music by Women Composers Volume 2: Upper Voices Anthems

Series Editor: Louise Stewart; Editor: Olivia Sparkhall (Homerton 1998)

Sacred Music by Women Composers Volume 2: Upper Voices Anthems

Volume Two of the Multitude of Voyces’ Sacred Music by Women Composers series contains 24 anthems for upper voices choirs, accompanied and unaccompanied, in a beautifully presented anthology. The collection includes both biographical information and commentaries, showcasing the very best established and new names in choral composition, spanning a thousand years. The focus on repertoire exclusively for upper voices provides a diverse range of choirs with a much-needed resource for performing superb compositions by women.

The Puritan Princess

The Puritan Princess

Miranda Malins (Homerton 2003)

The Puritan Princess is the debut novel by historian Miranda Malins and is based largely on her PhD research at Cambridge. The book tells the story of Oliver Cromwell's youngest daughter Frances whose life is transformed by her father's unparalleled rise from tenant farmer to head of state. When Oliver becomes Lord Protector in 1653, the teenage Frances moves into the sumptuous royal palaces of Whitehall and Hampton Court and is plunged into the glamour and intrigue of court life.

What's Left Of Me Is Yours

What's Left Of Me Is Yours

Stephanie Scott (Pembroke 2005)

A gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime, What's Left of Me Is Yours follows a young woman's search for the truth about her mother's life - and her murder.

In Japan, a covert industry has grown up around the wakaresaseya (literally "breaker-upper"), a person hired by one spouse to seduce the other in order to gain the advantage in divorce proceedings.

Mindscape and Melody

Mindscape and Melody

Ian Stockton (Selwyn 1969)

This collection of poetry written over a thirty year period reflects the diverse landscapes in which the author has lived and worked. Here are poems set in areas as diverse as industrial North Staffordshire, rural Galloway, Northeast England, Lincolnshire and Lancashire., as well as in places briefly visited. visited briefly. These landscapes and the people associated with them have lingered long in the poet's mind and memory; they are part of his mindscape.

These Are the Hands: Poems from the Heart of the NHS

These Are the Hands: Poems from the Heart of the NHS

Edited by Katie Amiel (Clare 1997) and Deborah Alma

There has been a dramatic growth in the popularity and sales figures for both poetry and medical memoirs and this anthology is unique in combining both of these. In addition, it is the first poetry anthology to give a voice to NHS staff at a critically important time for the NHS and its future.

All proceeds from book sales will be going to NHS Charities Together which supports over 140 official NHS charities all over the UK e.g. Great Ormond St, Royal Marsden etc.

Seven Climbs: finding the finest climb on each continent

Seven Climbs: finding the finest climb on each continent

Charles Sherwood (Sidney Sussex 1978)

'Even the most casual reader among you will by now have worked out that the whole thing is little more than a delightful ruse for having a very good time.'

Experienced climber Charles Sherwood is on a quest to find the best climb on each continent. He eschews the traditional Seven Summits, where height alone is the determining factor, and instead considers mountaineering challenge, natural beauty and historical context, aiming to capture the diverse character of each continent and the sheer variety of climbing in all its forms.

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