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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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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.

Well-kept Secrets: The Story of William Wordsworth
Andrew Wordsworth (Jesus 1974)

This insightful biography closely studies the great Romantic poet's work to understand more fully his deeply private and often elusive personality, and it observes the artist's life to better grasp the meaning hidden behind the often deceptively immediate verses.

The Trail
James Ellson (Christ's 1990)

Manchester. DCI Rick Castle is inspecting his bees when his boss phones. A minor cannabis dealer has been reported missing. His father’s a war hero. Rick flies to Nepal, and heads up the trail. Through villages of staring children and fluttering prayer-flags. Brilliant blue skies, and snow-capped mountains. He finds a dead body. Then a second. Nothing in this world was ever straightforward. Nothing. Finally, he puts himself in the firing line, and has a decision to make. Is it the right one? The moral one?

‘An intelligent and pacy thriller’ (Paula Hawkins)

Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food
Gina Rae La Cerva (Churchill 2010)

In Feasting Wild, an awardwinning writer and environmental anthropologist searches for the last wild foods. The book is part environmental history—tracing the relationship between "wild food" and environmental conservation—and part narrative non-fiction as La Cerva forages for wild onions in a Danish cemetery, tracks the trade in illegal bush meat from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Europe, sips elusive bird’s nest soup in Borneo, and smuggles Swedish "heartbreak" moose meat home in her suitcase.

Frank Ramsey, A Sheer Excess of Powers
Cheryl Misak

Frank Ramsey was 26 when he died.  If we include his undergraduate years, he was an academic for just 10 years and yet, despite this, he made indelible marks on up to seven disciplines, depending on how you count: philosophy, economics, pure mathematics, mathematical logic, the foundations of mathematics, probability theory, and decision theory. Keynes deferred to him; he was the only philosopher whom Wittgenstein treated as an equal. Had he lived, he might have become recognised as the most brilliant thinker of the twentieth century.

The Shadow People
Phillip Brown (St John's 1979)

This book is the third in a loose fiction trilogy dealing with contemporary controversial issues in politics (The Mirror Men), education (The Treadmillers), religion (The Shadow People). The Reverend Sedley, newly appointed incumbent of St Mary's, believes that the Christian Church is in danger of irreversible decline, since it is threatened by a burgeoning secularity, internal and external distrust, and competition from alternative religions seeking to fill the vacuum the Church is leaving behind.

The Doctor's Communication Handbook 8th Edition
Dr Peter Tate and Dr Francesca Frame (John's 2000)

This is a revised and updated edition of the Doctor's Communication Handbook, a book on the communication skills involved in a consultation between a doctor and their patient. This book was originally written 25 years ago, but has been brought up to date for the modern world of medicine. It is a written reflection on the fundamental basis of the doctor-patient consultation and the subtle nuances involved, with a view to helping doctors think about why they do what they do.

Still the Best Loved Game?
Neil Cole

"A thoughtful take on the English game before it embarks on a new era with The Hundred... a worthy read for those interested in debating the enduring legacy of the game". The Cricketer Magazine, August 2019.

Makes "the broader point that cricket's landscape changes like the weather." Wisden, November 2019.

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