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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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Eye of the Beholder

Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni Van

Laura J. Snyder

The remarkable story of how an artist and a scientist in seventeenth-century Holland transformed the way we see the world.

On a summer day in 1674, in the small Dutch city of Delft, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek—a cloth salesman, local bureaucrat, and self-taught natural philosopher—gazed through a tiny lens set into a brass holder and discovered a never-before imagined world of microscopic life. At the same time, in a nearby attic, the painter Johannes Vermeer was using another optical device, a camera obscura, to experiment with light and create the most luminous pictures ever beheld.

Grim

Grim

Kate Newmann

A profound realisation of suffering unequalled in Irish poetry. This volume of emotionally courageous poems is destined to find an enduring place in the canon of Holocaust literature. To read these poems is to taste sorrow. Cathal O'Searcaigh

Susan Sontag has delineated the pornography of fascism; these poems chart its lunacy, its aberrant, horrific, distortions of reason. Paula Meehan, Ireland Professor of Poetry

Reinventing Development

Reinventing Development: Aid Reform and Technologies of Governance in Ghana

Lord Mawuko-Yevugah (Downing, 2003)

Global development actors such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund claim that the shift to the poverty reduction strategy framework and emphasis on local participation address the social cost of earlier adjustment programs and help put aid-receiving countries back in control of their own development agenda.

Quantum Poetics

Quantum Poetics

Gwyneth Lewis (Girton, 1978)

In this innovative series of public lectures at Newcastle University, leading contemporary poets speak about the craft and practice of poetry to audiences drawn from both the city and the university. The lectures are then published in book form by Bloodaxe, giving readers everywhere the opportunity to learn what the poets themselves think about their own subject.

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Gold Medal Flapjack, Silver Medal Life

Alison Mowbray (Caius 1993)

"Being an Olympian was not my first choice of career, or even my second."

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The Invisible History of the Human Race

Christine Kenneally (Trinity 1992)

We are doomed to repeat history if we fail to learn from it, but how are we affected by the forces that are invisible to us?

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Translation and its Regulation in Cancer Biology and Medicine

Armen Parsyan (Clare Hall 2003), editor

This book, for the first time, comprehensively assembles and analyzes a large body of information on the role of the fundamental mechanism of the protein biosynthesis pathway, translation, in cancer biology. It systematically explores the function of the translation machinery and its regulation, including cell signaling, in the development, maintenance and progression of human cancer.

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The Pauline Conversion

Anthony Camber (Downing 1988)

With echoes of Tom Sharpe and PG Wodehouse, The Pauline Conversion weaves drama, politics, satire, social justice, mystery and humour in a touching tale of reinvention, trust — and family.

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Churchill's Final Farewell

Rodney Croft (Selwyn 1962)

2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill.  Using archival material and interviews with members of the Churchill family, the book explores all aspects of both the state and private funerals held in January, 1965.

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The Final Whistle: The Great War in Fifteen Players

Stephen Cooper (Trinity 1977)

Winner Rugby Book of Year: Times British Sports Book Awards 2013

With Foreword by Bill Beaumont CBE DL Chairman RFU

This is the story of fifteen men killed in the Great War. All played rugby for one London club; none lived to hear the final whistle.

Rugby brought them together; rugby led the rush to war. They came from Britain and Empire to fight in every theatre and service, among them a poet, playwright and perfumer.  Some were decorated and died heroically; others fought and fell quietly. Together their stories paint a portrait in miniature of the entire War.

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Tolerance of Uncertainty

John Bancroft (Caius 1954)

Is God really knowable? Does uncertainty harm or benefit science? Can we be certain about our moral principles, and how can historical examples guide our perspective? These are several questions that Dr. John Bancroft tackles in his new book, Tolerance of Uncertainty.

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Israel, Church and the Gentiles in the Gospel of Matthew

Matthias Konradt, eds Wayne Coppins (Fitzwilliam 2002) and Simon Gathercole (Faculty of Divinity)

Israel, Church, and the Gentiles in the Gospel of Matthew addresses one of the central theological problems of Matthew’s Gospel: what are the relationships between Israel and the Church and between the mission to Israel and the mission to the Gentiles? To answer these questions, Matthias Konradt traces the surprising transition from the Israel-centered words and deeds of Jesus (and his disciples) before Easter to the universal mission of Jesus’ earliest followers after his resurrection.

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The Unravelling (Kindle exclusive)

Paul Vlitos (St Edmunds 2001)

Combining crisp observational humour with a compelling mystery-driven plot, The Unravelling is a contemporary crime story with a wry twist.

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Final Exam

Peter Green (Pembroke 1958)

'Exams tend to corrupt; final exams corrupt finally.' This novel is about exams, literature, sex, cancer and time. Part 1: 1961: Examining a mind. Pembroke College, Cambridge. Peter Green and his friends Jack (big, dangerous) and Casey (small, sinister) face final examinations in English. Keen, they discuss their literary ideas. Peter, whose main study-aid is sexual pleasure, discards lissom Arabella, one of his two girlfriends. Competitive exams apparently subvert left-wing ideals. He alienates a don, Haggerty.

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Common People

Alison Light (Churchill 1973)

Family history is a massive phenomenon of our times but what are we after when we go in search of our ancestors? Beginning with her grandparents, Alison Light moves between the present and the past, in an extraordinary series of journeys over two centuries, across Britain and beyond. Epic in scope and deep in feeling, Common People is a family history but also a new kind of public history, following the lives of the migrants who travelled the country looking for work.

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How to Build a Nontraditional Career Path

Ron Elsdon (Churchill 1972)

An invaluable resource for general readers at any career stage, this book explains why, when, and how to engage in a fulfilling, nontraditional career path that is both inspiring and practical.

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Unthink

Chris Paley (Emmanuel 1999)

Your life is dominated by your unconscious mind: by thoughts you're unaware of and movements you don't realise you are making. Words, colours, mannerisms and other cues you don't realise are affecting you, change what you think. The confidence you have in your ability to reason and to consciously choose what to do is caused by a series of illusions that scientists are only just beginning to understand. The discovery of these illusions will change the way we see ourselves more than the discoveries of Darwin and Copernicus.

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Rydon Hall

Alexander Games (Pembroke 1982)

Charles Goldforbes is the new Latin teacher at Rydon Hall, the third best boys' prep school in Churley, south-west London. Along with the job come two related problems. One is the hideous Florian Bavington, aged 13 but already a master of low-level disruption. The other is the disturbingly alluring Natasha Bavington, Florian’s mother. Drama unfolds as Charles accompanies Florian and the rest of Year 8 on the annual school trip to Egypt, a country which just happens to be on the brink of revolution. The Arab Spring is underway but the tour party’s problems are only just beginning.

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Mount Athos: Renewal in Paradise

Graham Speake (Trinity 1964)

This is a history of Mount Athos from pagan antiquity to the present day. It tells the story of the first monks who were hermits, living in caves and simple huts, often in the most inaccessible parts of the peninsula. The first monasteries were founded in the tenth century with support from the Byzantine emperors. Both traditions survive on Athos today, the anchorites in their desert cells and the monks in the twenty ruling monasteries, coexisting more or less happily as they have always done.

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Changing Women's Lives: A Biography of Dame Rosemary Murray

Alison Wilson (Darwin 1969)

A fascinating look at the life of Rosemary Murray - one of the 20th Century's most prolific educationalists. With a foreword by HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

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