Discover the fascinating history of medicine, from its primitive beginnings to the life-saving technologies of today. Now in paperback!
In The History of Medicine in Twelve Objects, Dr Carol Cooper takes readers on an engaging, humorous, and sometimes gruesome journey through the 12 objects that have come to define medicine through the ages.
Over the years, with increasingly more knowledge about health and disease, the ways in which doctors engage with sickness have evolved, and so have the tools used to treat patients.
Format: 265 pages, Paperback Published: September 7, 2023 by Dead Ink ISBN: 9781915368027
Description
WINNER OF BRITISH FANTASY AWARD FOR BEST IN NON-FICTION 2024
For as long as humans have existed, they have asked: What if?
Science fiction was a defining genre of the postwar era, and its current boom across books, film and TV shows no sign of slowing. Space ships, time travel, aliens and artificial intelligence continue to obsess us, and dreams of the apocalypse haunt our own post-pandemic age. But what is it that compels writers to imagine the future?
Writing the Future gathers some of the best contemporary writers of science fiction, speculative fiction, dystopia and eco-fiction to explain their craft and explore the many worlds upon which our imaginations might land. Authors such as Toby Litt, Nina Allan, Adam Roberts and Una McCormack reveal how to balance scientific research with creative freedom, examine the different forms the written text might evolve into, and offer practical advice on giving life to your own vision of the future.
Whether you’re a reader, a seasoned writer looking to hone your skills, or a beginner who’s just starting out, Writing the Future provides valuable insights into the craft of imagining the worlds of tomorrow.
Featuring contributions from –
Nina Allan Rachelle Atalla Anne Charnock Tendai Huchu Oliver Langmead Toby Litt Adam Marek Una McCormack Maura McHugh James Miller Adam Roberts Aliya Whiteley Marian Womack
According to GoodReads I started reading this one in late July 2025 and I finished it yesterday. One year, one month. Nothing to do with the book, I’ve had a busy year, what with becoming a Director of an Arts CIC, having my Brighton adventure, doing work for exhibitions, giving up my salaried job to do self-employed work, and getting evicted. I’ve got another exhibition later this month and I’m no where near finished. Oh, and my cat has discovered windows that open (new bungalow has windows that aren’t just top opening windows); she’s using them like cat doors. I’m writing this while she is climbing out of my office window and walking along the outside window ledge.
And now she’s in the front garden.
Sorry, you didn’t come here to read about Phoenix’s explorations of our new environment. I got distracted.
Back to the book.
This is a fascinating collection of essays on a range of subjects related to writing science fiction. It gets a bit philosophical at times, which was fun, for a given value of fun. I found it stretched my thinking in helpful ways. I enjoyed the spotlight chapters about different authors, especially J.G. Ballard. I thought I’d read something by him, but looking at a list of Ballard’s work, I haven’t. Might have to remedy that.
Aliya Whiteley’s chapter on research and knowing when to stop procrastinating and start writing was helpful for me personally, because I will world build and research for years before actually writing the story (see my current WIP for example) and the image of a time travelling dog using black holes was just ‘brain-sparkle’ making.
I’m pretty certain science fiction writers of all stripes (I tend to mix my science fiction with fantasy – shape shifting alien space dragons, anyone?) will find something useful in this collection.
The discovery of minerals beneath our feet has transformed our species. Ochre first prompted humans to express themselves in art; tin and copper helped instigate the Bronze Age and later the Industrial Revolution; silver kick-started the engines of global trade. Each of these substances generated a leap forward in technology, each one opened the imagination a little further – and each one brought with it a cache of unexpected dangers.
Under A Metal Sky begins and ends in Philip Marsden’s homeland of Cornwall, one of the world’s great geological hotspots. Travelling eastwards into Europe, he examines how the extraction of peat propelled the Netherlands to world prominence but also imperilled its very existence. Continuing on up the Rhine by barge, into the heart of the continent, he uncovers more stories of potent and tempting resources, from iron-rich meteorites to radium and mercury, and the gold-bearing mountains of Georgia. At the same time he explores precious seams of ideas, from science to alchemy, mysticism to ecology – and those questing souls who pursued them, likeParacelsus, the Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II, Goethe,William Blake and Marie Curie.
Rich with revelations, Under A Metal Sky traces the dazzling achievements and dark consequences of our ability to extract what we want from the earth, and presents a fascinating new perspective on European history and on our troubled relationship with the natural world.
My Review
This book is subtitled ‘ A Journey Through Minerals, Greed, and Wonder’; it follows the authors journey east from Cornwall to the Caucuses and back, via the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Serbia, and a whole host of European countries. In each chapter he talks about a different element, metal or mineral, and the connections it has to everything else around it.
The journey is a deeply personal one for the author, starting with his childhood fascination with rock and fossil collecting, to his awe at the ability of early humans to turn lumps of rock into tools and decorations, to dig mines with nothing but antler horn, and the beauty found in the earth. He also discusses the damage resource extraction does to the land and water around it, the continuing harm to life, and the way forward for humans.
Marsden makes the connection to imagination through reference to Rudolf II’s Prague castle/collection/laboratory, Blake’s poetry and copper engraving artwork, and his own awe at the world. It’s actually a rather lovely idea, all things are connected.
We like to put things in little boxes, taxonomy is king. Except everything is connected, temporally and spatially. What happened then effects what happens now, how we react, what we do now, effects the future. What happens here, determines what happens there. We can only see things from where and when we are, usually, and that’s how it’s often treated, as disconnected boxes with discrete edges, but it’s really more of a fluid with occasional clumps. Like a really thick lava erupting form a shield volcano (think Hawaii).
If you’re interested in geology, mining, archaeology, poetry, history, or any of a number of other subjects, I recommend this book. It’s readable, understandable, and gives an interesting personal perspective on some of the many important minerals we depend on.
ISBN: 9780857506436 PRICE:£22.00 (GBP) PAGES: 336 Publisher: Random House UK Publication Date: 28th May 2026
Description
Meet the women throughout history who, quite literally, came before us.
From the host of award-winning History Hit podcast Betwixt the Sheets.
There is a common misconception that before modern day feminism, women throughout history simply lay back and thought of England or their respective place of origin; that the modern ‘sex positive’ movement is a radical break from the past. But women demanding better sex did not arrive with free love or the Rampant Rabbit. It has been a very long fight indeed.
From Ancient Mesopotamian sex goddesses to the contraceptive pill, Kate Lister takes us through history to show us how women’s sexual pleasure was controlled, understood and thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed.
FLICK is a rousing history of women enjoying sex: sex with themselves, sex with each other, and occasionally sex with men as well.
My Review
Yes, it’s another Netgalley book! Took me a whole month to read it! This was actually a really fun read. But then I wouldn’t expect anything less from Dr Kate Lister, sweary Yorkshire monarch of sex history. I love her podcast. Betwixt The Sheets, so obviously when I saw this book available on NetGalley I had to request it.
The book is exactly what it says on the cover, a history of female pleasure. It covers goddesses, ancient approaches to female sexuality, masturbation, sapphic love, menopause, medicalisation of female sexuality, and everything in between. It mostly focuses on what can broadly be called Western traditions, occasionally venturing further afield, but mostly Europe, south west Asia (when talking about ancient goddesses), and North America.
The overarching theme is one of suppression due to fear. Blame the ancient Greeks, they were weird about women and worshipped the almighty cock (or Zeus as he was also known (my joke)), made up crap about the Mesopotamian civilizations, and then infected the rest of the European world with their misogyny and dodgy medicine for millennia. I am paraphrasing, obviously, and attempting to condense a lot of information into one paragraph, but there is a throughline from ancient Mediterranean civilisations to the modern world, in which female sexuality is feared and vilified, and so is suppressed and made shameful. Whether it’s the Roman disgust at the ‘unmanly’ cunniligus (I learnt so many new euphemisms!), or wandering wombs, or clitorectomies for ‘over sexed’ women, the result is the same. Suppression of female sexuality is a tool in the oppression of women in a patriarchal culture.
Dr Lister’s final point in the book is that until female sexuality is held to be equally acceptable as male sexuality, there is no full equality. While girls are told it’s dirty to touch themselves, but boys are ‘just being boys’; while women are called sluts for having sex because they enjoy it, but men are ‘proper men’ if they get laid a lot; while older women are bullied into dying their hair and having facelifts, but older men are silver foxes, there can be no true equality.
I found it easy to follow and entertaining to read. I could almost hear Dr Lister’s voice, and filthy laugh. This book is not an in-depth exploration focusing on one specific topic in one place and time, but an overview of a variety of related topics that circle around female sexuality and the ways it has been suppressed, controlled and vilified over the last couple of thousand years.
Release date: 28 January 2026 Kindle eBook Paperback Hardback later in 2026 Page count: 40 Self-Published
Blurb
A short, mixed style poetry collection about not dying just yet – exploring chronic illness, depression, trauma and finding moments of joy and love in a painful world. Inspired by the authors own experiences with disability, trauma, healing and then healing again, this collection captures the strange existence of someone not quite living but still alive.
The first fantasy-writing textbook to combine a historical genre overview with an anthology and comprehensive craft guide, this book explores the blue prints of one of the most popular forms of genre fiction. The first section will acquaint readers with the vast canon of existing fantasy fiction and outline the many sub-genres encompassed within it before examining the important relationship between fantasy and creative writing, the academy and publishing. A craft guide follows which equips students with the key concepts of storytelling as they are impacted by writing through a fantastical lens. These
– Character and dialogue – Point of view – Plot and structure – Worldbuilding settings, ideologies and cultures – Style and revision
The third section guides students through the spectrum of styles as they are classified in fantasy fiction from Epic and high fantasy, through Lovecraftian and Weird fiction, to magical realism and hybrid fantasy. An accompanying anthology will provide students with a greater awareness of the range of possibilities open to them as fantasy writers and will feature such writers as Ursula Le Guin, China Miéville, Theodora Goss, Emrys Donaldson, Ken Liu, C.S.E. Cooney, Vandana Singh, Sofia Samatar, Rebecca Roanhorse, Jessie Ulmer, Yxta Maya Murray, and Rachael K. Jones. With writing exercises, prompts, additional online resources and cues for further reading throughout, this is an essential resource for anyone wanting to write fantastical fiction.
Format 344 pages, Paperback Published January 11, 2024 by Bloomsbury Academic ISBN 978135016692
NEW FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF I DON’T TALK TO DEAD BODIESWhat if your biggest challenge became your greatest adventure?
One day, Dr Rhona Morrison was a respected forensic psychiatrist planning for retirement. The next, on her birthday, she became a widow, stepping into an uncertain and unplanned future alone. But as Rhona soon discovered, an ending can also be a beginning – if you grasp the opportunities life presents.
In this warm, witty, and inspiring memoir, Rhona shares how she navigated the twists and turns of her loss and subsequent reinvention, transforming her grief into opportunity. From launching an art business and writing her first book, I Don’t Talk to Dead Bodies, to becoming a cruise ship lecturer and embarking on global adventures, she tackled each step with an open heart. Along the way, she discovered unexpected joys, new passions, and a renewed sense of purpose.
From Crime Scenes to Cruise Ships is an uplifting story of resilience, reinvention and embracing the unknown. Whether you’re facing loss, retirement, or a major life shift, Rhona’s journey is a reminder that even when life feels uncertain, you still have the power to shape your future. It may not look like you once imagined, but it can still be rich with meaning, adventure and possibility.
Your story isn’t over; the next chapter is waiting. So, let’s turn the page and step into what comes next – together.
Sex and Sexuality in Medieval England allows the reader a peek beneath the bedsheets of our medieval ancestors, in an informative and fascinating look at sex and sexuality in England from 1250 to 1450. It examines the prevailing attitudes towards male and female sexual behaviour, and the ways in which these attitudes were often determined by those in positions of power and authority. It also explores our ancestors’ ingenious, surprising, bizarre and often entertaining solutions to the challenges associated with maintaining a healthy sex life. This book will look at marriage, pre-marital sex, adultery and fornication, pregnancy and fertility, illegitimacy, prostitution, consent, same-sex relationships, gender roles and much more, to shed new light on the private lives of our medieval predecessors.
My Review
Meh. Felt like more of a gazetteer of examples rather than an exploration of “marriage, pre-marital sex, adultery and fornication, pregnancy and fertility, illegitimacy, prostitution, consent, same-sex relationships, gender roles”.
The author covers sex and sexuality across the whole medieval period. This is a thousand years. Most of the examples are from the latter half of the period, as that’s what survives, and the author draws on academic work by modern researchers. While there are some interesting snippets of information, you can probably learn more from the ‘Betwixt the Sheets’ podcast.
I have books on similar subjects from Pen & Sword, that are either really well organised and explore the subject in detail, or they are more of the gazetteer type with a bit of discussion around lists of people who did things or got arrested for things. It’s repetitive and unhelpful. This is what really frustrates me about Pen & Sword books, they’re either really quite amateur or really professional, with very little in between.
Format: 342 pages, Paperback Published: March 21, 2019 by Two Roads ISBN: 9781473661233 (ISBN10: 1473661234)
From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers – race and class have shaped Akala’s life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.
Covering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, sexual objectification and the far right, Nativesspeaks directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain’s racialised empire.
Natives is the searing modern polemic and Sunday Times bestseller from the BAFTA and MOBO award-winning musician and political commentator, Akala.
Bedford Square Publishers 05 June 2025 £18.99 978-1-8350-1071-6 Hardback
The book Our names are a shadow we carry around with us. They are part of who we are. Our names are a marker of our self-identity and our sense of self. Our names have the power to shock. They have the power to heal, and they have the power to trigger conversations around race, class, social mobility and belonging. But what is a name? What do our names tell us about ourselves? And why do they matter?
Named is a fascinating exploration of names, global naming conventions and identity politics woven into a moving, personal narrative about the finding of family and self. At the intersection of memoir and social and cultural history it is a truly fascinating book about the seemingly ordinary and every day.
The author’s own narrative about her estrangement from her Nigerian father, the grapples with her Jamaican mother and her journey towards identity is woven through the chapters making it an engaging and intimate investigation of what makes us who we are.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 