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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 Price of Sex

The Price of Sex

Belinda Brooks-Gordon (Churchill College 1995)

As a society we are buying more sex than ever before. Adult sex shops now take their place amongst retailers in the high street and lap dancing clubs compete for an increased share of the leisure economy; hotel chains offer sexually explicit films as part of their standard service, the party selling of adult toys to women in their homes has become a mainstream activity; and at the traditional end of the sexual service economy, prostitution has experienced new growth.

The Seduction of Curves

The Seduction of Curves: The Lines of Beauty That Connect Mathematics, Art, and the Nude

Allan McRobie

The Seduction of Curves: The Lines of Beauty That Connect Mathematics, Art, and the Nude by Allan McRobie takes the reader on an alluring exploration of the beautiful curves that shape our world. The reader learns how these curves play out in everything, from the human body to the study of distant galaxies, and the work of artists such as David Hockney, Henry Moore and the final paintings of Salvador Dalí.

The Message

The Message

Yan Vana

In the tradition of fiction written with a purpose The Message is an environmental wake up call for everyone on this fragile planet.

It follows an official inquiry into the wanton destruction of a protected nature reserve. The first witnesses give evidence of the extent of the damage. Later witnesses identify those responsible.

As the plot unfolds it becomes apparent that the nature reserve is Earth and the Inquiry is being undertaken by Regulators from other planets who have responsibility for the protection of nature reserves throughout the Cosmos.

Claus and Claws

Claus and Claws

Alexander Bell (Fitzwilliam College 1980)

All was well at the North Pole until Santa Claus had a gardening accident which affected his mental state. Leaving the Pole for the wider world, he falls under the influence of the urbane and Machiavellian Nick Claws who persuades him, for reasons of his own, to re-invent himself as a modern man of business. This will require Santa to wise up and completely rethink his entire present-giving operation. Is it fit for purpose in the 21st century?

A Better World is Possible

A Better World is Possible: The Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Social Progress

Georgina Ferry

On 17 March 1967 the 26-year-old David Sainsbury (King's 1959) wrote out a cheque for £5 and established the trust which would become the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Gatsby's purpose was ambitious - to make the world a better place by taking on some of the social, economic and scientific challenges that face humanity.

Stress-Proof

Stress-Proof - The Scientific Solution to Protect Your Brain And Body - And Be More Resilient Every Day

Mithu Storoni (St John's 1996)

An extensively cited book, giving the reader an overview of the latest model of the neurobiology of stress and evidence-based actionable advice, taken from cutting-edge findings in psychology, psychiatry, physiology, neurology, immunology, gastroenterology and metabolic medicine research. The book is aimed at the discerning lay public, but may also be of interest to readers with a specialist background. 

Immune: How Your Body Defends and Protects You

Immune: How Your Body Defends and Protects You

Catherine Carver (Clare College 2003)

The human body is like an exceedingly well-fortified castle, defended by billions of soldiers – some live for less than a day, others remember battles for decades, but all are essential in protecting us from disease. This hidden army is our immune system, and without it we could not survive the eternal war between our microscopic enemies and ourselves.

Marabi nights: Jazz, ‘race’ and society in early apartheid South Africa

Marabi nights: Jazz, ‘race’ and society in early apartheid South Africa

Christopher Ballantine (St John's 1966)

This is an updated and substantially expanded second edition of Christopher Ballantine’s classic study of the triumphs and tragedies of South Africa’s marabi-jazz tradition.

Let There Be Justice: The Political Journey of Imran Khan

Let There Be Justice: The Political Journey of Imran Khan

B. J. Sadiq (Hughes Hall 2005)

Pakistan has been labelled as one of the most controversial countries in the world. A country tainted with military dictatorships, tormented by religious extremists and fleeced by years of corrupt democratic rule. It is a place where an endemic culture of nepotism blooms with impunity. The biggest casualty of this political and social homicide are the ordinary citizens who are left to struggle with appalling economic conditions and a system sorely in need of repair. In a climate as unsettling as that, one noise exploded onto the scene with an unyielding aggression.

Nine Lessons

Nine Lessons

Nicola Upson (Downing 1988)

In the years before the Great War, M.R. James told ghost stories by candlelight to a handful of friends and scholars after the Christmas Eve carol service at King’s College. Now, twenty-five years later, those men are dying, killed off one by one...

Josephine Tey is in Cambridge, Christmas is approaching, but the town is gripped by fear and suspicion as a serial rapist stalks the streets, and in the shadow of King's College Chapel, Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose faces some of the most horrific and audacious murders of his career.

Empty Justice: One Hundred Years of Law Literature and Philosophy

Empty Justice: One Hundred Years of Law Literature and Philosophy

Melanie Williams (Murray Edwards 1985)

Utilising literature as a serious source of challenges to questions in philosophy and law, this book provides a fresh perspective not only upon the inculcation of the legal subject, but also upon the relationship between modernism, postmodernism and how such concepts might evolve in the construction of community ethics. The creation and role of the legal subject is just one aspect of jurisprudential enquiry now attracting much attention.
      

The Mountain Dwellers

The Mountain Dwellers

Phillip Richard Brown (St John's 1972)

It is a common and enduring characteristic of what the author calls Mountain Dwellers that they lament the decline of what they define as civilisation, and express their regret by distancing themselves, if not geographically then morally or spiritually or intellectually, from all those whose ignorance of, or indifference to, such matters can only serve to hasten the decline of civilisation so defined.

Soul of the Sea in the Age of the Algorithm

Soul of the Sea in the Age of the Algorithm

Nishan Degnarain (Sidney Sussex 1998)

In this groundbreaking work, Nishan Degnarain and Gregory Stone set out not just how grave the problems facing our oceans are, but how solvable they can be. Weaving history, ecology, business and geopolitics together and leveraging their experience in oceans and some of the innovation hotspots around the world, they reveal the revolutionary tools and business models that could unleash trillions of dollars of new sustainable economic opportunities.

The Pinocchio Brief

The Pinocchio Brief

Abi Silver (Girton 1986)

A 15-year-old schoolboy is accused of the murder of one of his teachers. His lawyers, the guarded veteran, Judith, and the energetic young solicitor, Constance, begin a desperate pursuit of the truth, revealing uncomfortable secrets about the teacher and the school. But Judith has her own secrets which she risks exposing when it is announced that a new lie-detecting device, nicknamed Pinocchio, will be used during the trial. And is the accused, a troubled boy who loves challenges, trying to help them or not?
 

The Long Shadow of the Past: Contemporary Austrian Literature, Film, and Culture

The Long Shadow of the Past: Contemporary Austrian Literature, Film, and Culture

Katya Krylova (Churchill 2002)

The process of coming to terms with its National Socialist past has been a long and difficult one in Austria. It is only over the past thirty years that the country's view of its role during the Third Reich has shifted decisively from that of victimhood to complicity, prompted by the Waldheim affair of 1986-1988. Austria's writers, filmmakers, and artists have been at the center of this process, holding up a mirror to the country's present and drawing attention to a still disturbing past.

Confessions of a Briefless Barrister

Confessions of a Briefless Barrister

Harry Mitchell (Corpus Christi 1950)

This is an autobiography with a difference. Harry has had a very varied career, first spending five years in the Colonial Service in Sierra Leone then in a variety of posts in different industries, including a spell as company secretary to a British-owned company in India. 

Berlin

Berlin

Joseph Pearson (Trinity Hall 1996)

As Joseph Pearson poetically puts it in this rich look at one of Europe's most fascinating cities: Berlin is a party in a graveyard. Europe's youth capital, Berlin is also beset by sustained guilt for the atrocities that were ordered by its Nazi officers during the Third Reich. Built and rebuilt on the ruins of multiple regimes, Berlin in the twenty-first-century houses an extraordinary diversity of refugees, immigrants, and expats.

Six English Filmmakers

Six English Filmmakers

Paul Sutton (Wolfson 2000)

Paul Sutton in conversation with and about six of the most important English filmmakers of all time, from his correspondence with Lindsay Anderson (Sutton edited Anderson’s Diaries for publication); to a discussion with Kevin Brownlow in which they get to the heart of Chaplin’s genius. There are full-career discussions with Clive Donner, Mike Hodges and Michael Winner. Sutton talks with Vivian Pickles (Harold and Maude) and the Oscar-nominated sound engineer, Brian Simmons, about the films of Ken Russell.

Understanding Gary Numan: The Machine Quartet (1978-1981)

Understanding Gary Numan: The Machine Quartet (1978-1981)

Paul Sutton (Wolfson 2000)

The popular analytical study of the pioneering English composer. The historian, Paul Sutton, takes the reader through a vastly entertaining potted history of rock music pioneers, tracing them all back to “a delta of Mississippi mud from where howled the first harmonica, and from where was heard the first blue plucking finger on string”, to show that popular music was strictly The Imitation Game until Gary Numan came along with his Machine Quartet, four albums that completely re-invigorated rock and roll.

Talking about Ken Russell

Talking about Ken Russell

Paul Sutton (Wolfson 2000)

Over a period of ten years, Paul Sutton interviewed Ken Russell and hundreds of people who worked with him. This landmark book includes, for example, the first-hand testimonies of more than a dozen people who worked on Women in Love, and twenty-three members of the cast and crew of The Devils. Actors, editors, designers, continuity women, producers, assistants, special effects artists, composers, sound recordists, and the camera crews, all recall their working days with Ken Russell.

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