Alice Roberts – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Format: 392 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 2014 by Heron Books
ISBN: 9781848664791 (ISBN10: 1848664796)
Language: English

Alice Roberts takes you on the most incredible journey, revealing your path from a single cell to a complex embryo to a living, breathing, thinking person. It’s a story that connects us with our distant ancestors and an extraordinary, unlikely chain of events that shaped human development and left a mark on all of us. Alice Roberts uses the latest research to uncover the evolutionary history hidden in all of us, from the secrets found only in our embryos and genes – including why as embroyos we have what look like gills – to those visible in your anatomy. This is a tale of discovery, exploring why and how we have developed as we have. This is your story, told as never before.

My Review

The book takes the foetal development from before ovum and sperm meet to birth, and going from head to toe, to discuss both foetal development and evolution. The author is uniquely place to write this sort of book, having spent years as both a scientist and a science communicator. I enjoyed Alice Roberts’ documentaries that I’ve seen, and this book from ten years ago holds up well, although the science continues to move on.

I found this book really interesting. I have some background in biology, but not a huge amount, I only did a year of university chemistry, mostly biochemistry and molecular biology. I suspect if you didn’t manage to pass GCSE biology and don’t watch documentaries, you might struggle with this book, but for the reasonably educated, it’s a good book. It’s a foundation at least, for university study. It’s not a textbook however, it is written with a general audience on mind. If you enjoy Dr Roberts’ documentary series’ you’ll be fine with this book.

I giggled at the occasional digs at creationists, because they deserve it for their wilful ignorance. If you’re sensitive about that, you probably need a slightly less advanced book before you get to this one. And you need to escape whatever cult you’re in that’s stopping you from getting an education…

I’m listening to Ancestors, by Alice Roberts next.

Hardcover, 256 pages
Published June 4th 2020 by Piatkus
(first published January 1st 2020)
ISBN: 0349425469 (ISBN13: 9780349425467)

Blurb

We all want to lead a happy life. Traditionally, when in need of guidance, comfort or inspiration, many people turn to religion. But there has been another way to learn how to live well – the humanist way – and in today’s more secular world, it is more relevant than ever.

In The Little Book of Humanism, Alice Roberts and Andrew Copson share over two thousand years of humanist wisdom through an uplifting collection of stories, quotes and meditations on how to live an ethical and fulfilling life, grounded in reason and humanity.

With universal insights and beautiful original illustrations, The Little Book of Humanism is a perfect introduction to and a timeless anthology of humanist thought from some of history and today’s greatest thinkers.

My Review

I bought myself this book and a couple of Alice Roberts’ books for my birthday, with my birthday voucher from my friend Fi. I have been a subscriber to The New Humanist magazine for a couple of years, but I don’t really understand the philosophical underpinnings of Humanism, and I wanted to understand a bit more.

I found this book very touching. It’s concise and illustrated with examples that demonstrate the points made. It covers life and death, which I found very comforting, given the sudden loss of my uncle three weeks ago. There were quotes that I felt would be appropriate for a funeral reading. I found in reading this book that my personal ethics and philosophy already fell in to the Humanist category. If you need a god to tell you how to behave ethically, you have a problem.

I would describe myself as a Humanist Heathen – that is I combine humanism with heathenry, which may seem contradictory considering Humanists don’t accept the existence of gods and heathenry has lots of gods. I tend to think the gods and their stories are not literally real but are explanations for events that worked for people two and a half thousand to fourteen hundred years ago and they can still be useful ways of experiencing the world. For example, I don’t need Nehalennia to bless any sea crossings I make or any international trade I might do (haha – like that’s ever going to happen) but I still find it comforting and a focus of attention. I don’t need to believe literally in Sunna to be overwhelmed with awe in a beautiful sunrise, either. It’s a bit weird, I know, but it works for me.

This book is a little book that fits in a pocket, and it obviously isn’t a comprehensive discussion of Humanism, its history and philosophy, but if you want to dip in and get the basics it is a good start.