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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 Book of Barely Imagined Beings: a 21st Century Bestiary

Caspar Henderson (Corpus Christi 1981)

From Axolotl to Zebrafish, meet a world of barely imagined beings: real creatures that are often stranger and more astonishing than anything dreamt in the pages of a medieval bestiary. Ranging from the depths of the ocean to the most arid corners of the earth, Caspar Henderson captures the beauty and bizarreness of the many living forms we thought we knew and some we could never have contemplated, and invites us to better imagine the world around us.

Stoning the Devil

Garry Craig Powell (Selwyn 1974)

Stoning the Devil is a novel set in the United Arab Emirates, a country of paradoxes, of seediness and glamour, of desert grandeur and Disneyland vulgarity, where public executions and other barbaric customs are winked at by the western expats who run the economy.

Colin, a professor of literature, is not the 'typical' expat, ignorant and interested only in pleasure and his stock portfolio, but a speaker of Arabic and an admirer of Arab culture - or is he? To his Arab wife, he is an Orientalist who exoticizes and patronises the locals, unaware of his latent racism.

Caposcripti

Zelda Rhiando (Clare 1992)

Modern London. The photographer is a man ruled by two obsessions. First, to take photographs that speak for him. Second, to make the subjects of those pictures speak to him alone. He is not interested in them as people - their banal tales of joy and suffering. His experiments are to uncover the secrets that they don't know they are keeping.

Rewind to Peru in 1851. An explorer is battling to survive in a claustrophobic and unknown world. In flight from modernity he seeks older truths, which he finds in the customs of the Caposcripti.

From Recipients to Donors: Emerging Powers and the Changing Development Landscape

Dr Emma Mawdsley (St John's 1989), University Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Fellow of Newnham College

From Recipients to Donors examines the emergence, or re-emergence, of a large number of nations as partners and donors in international development, from global powers such as Brazil, China and India, to Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, to former socialist states such as Poland and Russia. The impact of these countries in international development has grown sharply, and as a result they have become a subject of intense interest and analysis.

Big Questions from Little People (in aid of the NSPCC)

Compiled by Gemma Elwin Harris (Christ's 1993)

Children have a knack of asking great questions: Why is the sea salty? How far away is space? Why did dinosaurs go extinct and not other animals? What is global warming? But how are we supposed to answer their questions when most of us have only a sketchy grasp of the detail?

I Did It to Save My Life: Love and Survival in Sierra Leone

Catherine E Bolten (King's 1999)

Utilizing narratives of seven different people - soldier, rebel, student, trader, evangelist, father, and politician - I Did it To Save My Life provides fresh insight into how ordinary Sierra Leoneans survived the war that devastated their country for a decade. Individuals in the town of Makeni narrate survival through the rubric of love, and by telling their stories and bringing memory into the present, create for themselves a powerful basis on which to reaffirm the rightness of their choices and orient themselves to a livable everyday.

The Banker Who Turned to Voodoo

Paul Williams (Fitzwilliam 1965)

A naive but intrepid young man, fresh from university in the 1960s, takes a well-paid banking job in Brazil for which he is ill-suited, at a time when the country hardly figures on the world stage. Inspired by Brazil's rich African heritage and the remarkable powers of voodoo priests to heal the sick, he gives up banking and returns to live as a research student in remote communities, examining how serious illnesses are cured by herbs, flogging and fumigation.

Sworn Secret

Amanda Jennings (New Hall 1992)

When Anna, Lizzie Thorne's charismatic sister, is killed in a tragic fall from the roof of her school, her family is plunged into shock and despair. One year on and grief still has a suffocating hold on them. Her mother, Kate, consumed by loss and desperate to find someone to blame for Anna's death, retreats from her family, locking herself away to paint Anna's portrait for hours on end. Jon, her father, is doing his best to care for his loved ones but the pressure of trying to stop his marriage collapsing is pushing him to breaking point.

Wild Hope: on the front lines of conservation success

Professor Andrew Balmford (Clare 1982), Professor of Conservation Science in the Department of Zoology

Tropical deforestation. The collapse of fisheries. Unprecedented levels of species extinction. Faced with the plethora of gloom-and-doom headlines about the natural world, we might think that environmental disaster is inevitable. But is there any good news about the environment? Yes, there is, answers Andrew Balmford in Wild Hope, and he offers several powerful stories of successful conservation to prove it. This tragedy is still avoidable, and there are many reasons for hope if we find inspiration in stories of effective environmental recovery.

Glynn Thomas: East Anglia – A Different Perspective

Alan Marshall

Cambridge-born printmaker Glynn Thomas uses an ancient technique and an eye for detail to produce highly original images of familiar places. Etching with acid on copper plates, he creates unique interpretations of city scenes and rural locations that are packed with interest. Although now living in Suffolk, Glynn’s childhood and art school education in Cambridge have made the city one of his favourite subjects.

Fighting Season: Tales of a British Officer in Afghanistan

Graham Lee (Clare 1999)

The 'fighting season' in Afghanistan is that strange annual pattern of the local fighters who re-emerge every year, apparently undaunted. So there is something wry about these reflections, by a much-admired British PARA officer, on the real-life experience of our country mission to promote democracy and cut off terrorism in Afghanistan - and of the extraordinary resilience of the Army's enemy there.

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Extramural: Literature and Lifelong Learning

Adrian Barlow (former Director of of Public & Professional Programmes and lecturer in English Literature at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), Senior Member of Wolfson College)

Extramural: Literature and Lifelong Learning is an account of the authors time teaching literature at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continued Education. Extramural makes the case that adult education is of continued relevance despite increasing marginalisation and closure. The Institute's founder, James Stuart, had a bold and idealistic vision of broadening education from the elite confines of the Oxbridge colleges to all of society, envisaging a community of adult learners.

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An Ordinary Spectator: 50 Years of Watching Sport

Dr John Rigg (Trinity 1974)

It is August 1961 and a 6 year-old boy, sitting on his father’s shoulders, is watching a rugby match in south Leeds. He is immediately hooked on the experience of the sporting event, viewed live and in the flesh… fast forward to August 2011. A man in late middle age is watching another rugby match.

John Rigg has been an ‘ordinary spectator’ – not only of rugby (league and union), but of football and cricket and a range of other sports – for 50 years.

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Jugaad Innovation: think frugal, be flexible, generate breakthrough growth

Dr Simone Ahuja, Professor Jaideep Prabhu (Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise and director of the Centre for India & Global Business at Cambridge Judge Business School, Fellow of Clare College) and Navi Radjou (member of the CJBS

Jugaad Innovation argues the West must look to places like India, Brazil, and China for a new approach to frugal and flexible innovation. The authors show how in these emerging markets, jugaad (a Hindi word meaning an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness) is leading to dramatic growth and how Western companies can adopt jugaad innovation to succeed in our hypercompetitive world.

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Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness

Professor Nicholas Humphrey (Trinity 1961)

How is consciousness possible? What biological purpose does it serve? Why do we value it so highly?

In Soul Dust the psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, a leading figure in consciousness research, returns to the front-line with a startling new theory.

Consciousness, he argues, is nothing less than a magical-mystery show that we stage for ourselves inside our own heads. This self-made show lights up the world for us, making us feel special and transcendent.

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Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future

Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron and Dr Meera Balarajan (Darwin 2000)

Throughout history, migrants have fueled the engine of human progress. Their movement has sparked innovation, spread ideas, relieved poverty, and laid the foundations for a global economy. In a world more interconnected than ever before, the number of people with the means and motivation to migrate will only increase.

Heart of Darkness: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Invisible Universe

Professor Jermiah P Ostriker and Dr Simon Mitton (St Edmind's 1968, Fellow of St Edmund's)

Heart of Darkness describes the incredible saga of humankind's quest to unravel the deepest secrets of the universe. Over the past thirty years, scientists have learned that two little-understood components - dark matter and dark energy - comprise most of the known cosmos, explain the growth of all cosmic structure, and hold the key to the universe's fate.

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The Best Water Skier in Luxembourg

Keith Kahn-Harris (Robinson 1991)

The Best Waterskier In Luxembourg recounts sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris's encounters with those who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of excellence while almost no one else is looking. It’s a book about unsung heroes, in unsung communities, doing incredible things. It’s mostly travelogue, with a bit of sociology thrown in. It’s also a challenge he has set himself to discover worlds he knows nothing about, to search out the odd, the quirky and the eccentric but not to ridicule them.

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The Colleges of Cambridge University

Andrew Hunter-Blair (Cambridge resident and local history author)

Cambridge University is one of the most well-known and iconic universities, boasting a reputation unsurpassed by few others. This new title from Andrew Hunter-Blair provides a unique insight into the workings, both past and present, of the 31 colleges that comprise Cambridge University, showcasing the college connections whilst also detailing the university’s diverse roles.

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Florida's First Constitution: The Constitution of Cádiz

Dr M C Mirow (Gonville & Caius 1988)

St. Augustine’s central square, the Plaza de la Constitución, is not named for the United States Constitution. Instead, its name comes from Florida’s first constitution, the Spanish Constitution of Cádiz of 1812.

Daily political life in Florida’s Spanish colonial cities was governed by this document, and cities like St. Augustine ordered their activities around the requirements, rights, and duties expressed in this Constitution. This Constitution governed Spanish Florida from 1812 to 1815 and then again from 1820 until 1821 when Spain turned Florida over to the United States.

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