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Book shelf

Explore a selection of publications by alumni and academics, and books with a link to the University or Cambridge

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Inside Retirement Housing: Designing, Developing and Sustaining Later Lifestyles

Sam Clark (Churchill 1999)

Many developed nations face the challenge of accommodating a growing, ageing population and creating appropriate forms of housing suitable for older people. Written by an architect, this practice-led ethnography of retirement housing offers new perspectives on environmental gerontology. Through stories and visual vignettes, it presents a range of stakeholders involved in the design, construction, management and habitation of third-age housing in the UK, highlighting the importance of design decisions for the everyday lives of older people.

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And Then the Rain Came

Edward Ragg (Selwyn 1999)

Edward Ragg won the 2012 Cinnamon Press Poetry Award and his debut collection was A Force That Takes (2013). His second volume, Holding Unfailing (2017), charted the rise of modern China, whilst Exploring Rights (2020) confronted ‘post-truth’ culture and the prospects of humankind’s survival. And Then the Rain Came turns to love, physical and mental geographies, wellbeing, and the vitality of the present. Set against the backdrops of the global pandemic and climate crisis, each poem embraces present perception in the awakening motif of rain.

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Bitter

Alexina Anatole (Jesus 2010)

Fearlessly bringing together the best flavours and culinary strategies from around the world, Bitter is MasterChef finalist Alexina Anatole's brilliantly innovative debut cookbook. The first in a series about the five tastes (bitter, sweet, salty, sour and umami), Bitter will help you find the beauty in bitterness, and show you how to harness this often misunderstood taste to make your food more moreish and delicious.

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The Dream Builders

Oindrila Mukherjee (Peterhouse 1997)

After living in the US for years, Maneka Roy returns home to India to mourn the loss of her mother and finds herself in a new world. The booming city of Hrishipur where her father now lives is nothing like the part of the country where she grew up, and the more she sees of this new, sparkling city, the more she learns that nothing — and no one — here is as it appears. Ultimately, it will take an unexpected tragic event for Maneka and those around her to finally understand just how fragile life is in this city built on aspirations.

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Quantum Untangling

Simon Sherwood (Sidney Sussex 1979)

After studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge (Sidney Sussex 1979), I spent my business life working in the travel industry, running the luxury Orient-Express train and renovating old hotels. However, a few years ago, an old passion grabbed me. Throughout my years in the business world, I never forgot my love of science, and especially physics. Now, over 60 years old, I have written my first book - Quantum Untangling - a primer on quantum mechanics, published by Wiley.

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The Evolution of Hollywood's Calculated Blockbuster Films: Blockbusted

Alexander Ross (Girton 1981)

In this book, Alexander Ross highlights how creative entrepreneurs saved the Hollywood studios in the 1970s by establishing the calculated blockbuster, consisting of key replicable markers of success, as Hollywood's preeminent business model. Ross demonstrates how visionary individuals such as Coppola, Spielberg, Lucas, and Zemeckis helped create the modern, calculated blockbuster business model (BBM).

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Special Relativity

Trevor G. Underwood (Clare 1962)

This study concludes that, quite apart from the enormity of the consequences of the two postulates of Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, taken together, including length contraction, time dilation, and the requirement to assume a point electron in the unsuccessful attempt to introduce special relativity into quantum electrodynamics, the evidence in support of Einstein’s second postulate on the constancy of the speed of light is far outweighed by the evidence against it.

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Uprooting

Marchelle Farrell (Christ's 2000)

What is home? It's a question that has troubled Marchelle Farrell for her entire life. A longed-for career in psychiatry saw her leave behind the pristine beaches and emerald hills of Trinidad. Until, disillusioned, she uprooted again, this time for the peaceful English countryside.

The only Black woman in her village, Marchelle hopes to grow a new life. But when a worldwide pandemic and a global racial reckoning collide, the upheaval of colonialism that has led her to this place begins to be unearthed. Is this really home? And can she ever feel truly grounded here?

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Stories Scratched on the Wall

Irakli Laitadze (Sidney Sussex 2002)

Stories Scratched on the Wall is a collection of flash (mini) stories. The book is a personal confession of the author and as such, is close to nearly every individual. The real-life cases narrate in a philosophical way about soul-searching, broken hopes, desperation, brave confrontation with depression, and the absurdity of life; but next to it, you will meet the deep Christian hope, repentance, resilient desire and energy for renewal.

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Retaining the Old Episcopal Divinity: John Edwards of Cambridge and Reformed Orthodoxy in the Later Stuart Church

Jake Griesel (Peterhouse 2016)

John Edwards of Cambridge (1637-1716) has typically been portrayed as a marginalized 'Calvinist' in an overwhelmingly 'Arminian' later Stuart Church of England. In Retaining the Old Episcopal Divinity, Jake Griesel challenges this depiction of Edwards and the theological climate of his contemporary Church.

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The Spare Room - Of Elves and Men

P R Brown (St John's 1979)

The Spare Room (Of Elves and Men) follows naturally from the author's preceding title, Diary of the Last Man, in that it is an examination of the struggle between hope and despair concerning the future of mankind given man's persistent and some might say burgeoning inhumanity to man. It is for the reader to decide whether The Spare Room is a humorous book with serious undertones, a serious book with humorous overtones, an allegorical commentary on the so-called 'human condition', or all of these things.

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Immortalised to Death

Lyn Squire (Emmanuel 1968)

Debut author Lyn Squire kicks off his electrifying Dunston Burnett Trilogy with legendary Victorian novelist Charles Dickens dead at his desk, pen still in hand. The mystery unravels as Dickens’ nephew and unlikely detective Dunston Burnett, tries to find the solution of his uncles’ unfinished novel. Convinced that the identity of Dickens’ murderer lies in the book's missing conclusion, Dunston becomes obsessed with investigating those closest to Dickens.

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Cambridge Sport: in Fenner's Hands

Nigel Fenner (Downing 1981)

“Fenner’s” is well known in Cambridge, even amongst those who know little about cricket, but being named after the University Cricket Ground is currently Frank Fenner’s only legacy. His hands had quite a reputation though, being described a few years before he died as 'worthy of preservation in a glass case in the pavilion at Lord’s, like Galileo’s at Florence, as trophies of his suffering and glory. Broken, distorted, mutilated, half-nailless, they resemble the hoof of a rhinoceros, almost as much as a human hand'. So how did a local tobacconist warrant such a comparison with Galileo?

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White Privilege In Transition

Choo Lak Yeow (Fitzwilliam 1961)

A former British subject from Singapore writes on his experiences of and exposure to white privilege. The white privilege phenomenon arguably began when European countries started to colonize Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. White privilege is built on the twin towers of European colonizers exploiting their colonies’ human resources and stealing their natural resources to build up their ill-gotten wealth. Structured into their system, white privilege perpetuates white supremacy.

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Cyber Threat Intelligence

Martin Lee (Fitzwilliam 1991)

Forewarned is forearmed. Protecting computer systems against cyber attack requires understanding the motivations of the attackers and how they will go about conducting their attacks. This book describes the intelligence techniques and models used within the nascent Cyber Threat Intelligence profession. Serving as a textbook for those who wish to learn more about the domain, particularly for anyone wishing to develop a career in intelligence, and as a reference for those already working in the area.

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More Lessons from History: Uncovering the colourful characters of the past

Alex Deane (Trinity 1997)

Welcome to another round of history’s most absurd stories and the timeless lessons that come with them. In More Lessons from History, Alex Deane has unearthed yet more bizarre tales that you certainly haven’t heard before. If you’re wondering how large, flightless birds might organise themselves against a military regiment, how you should respond to the glare of an international rugby player whose glass eye you just knocked out, exactly why carrots are orange, or whether the world’s worst-run battleship ever ceased firing upon her comrades-in-arms, then look no further.

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The Cedars of Beckenham

Peter Longley (St Catharine's 1963)

The Mystery of an Antique German Doll reunites members of a family torn apart during The Third Reich of Nazi Germany. This family saga, starting in the leafy suburb of Beckenham on the borders of Kent and London, begins in 1930 in the comfortable world of four British upper-middle-class families blind to the impending changes that are about to threaten not only their world but everyone else’s world, too.

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The 21st Century CLIL Resource Pack

Margaret Grieveson (Wolfson 1975) & Wendy Superfine

Designed to introduce new topics to young learners in a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) context using a cross-curricular approach. A bank of 60 motivating lessons with photocopiable activity sheets for the CLIL Classroom (8-12+) supported by teacher's notes and extensive digital resources including photos, songs, dialogues and news articles accessible online via a dedicated webpage. All the activities and resources focus on talking about the topics, with speaking and listening skills as the main function of each lesson.

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The Race Against Time: Adventures in Late-Life Running

Richard Askwith (Trinity 1977)

Part memoir, part guide, part exploration of a little-known sporting culture, The Race Against Time is a reportage-based study of a remarkable modern phenomenon: runners who pursue their sport far into old age. Described by The Observer as "inspirational", it tells a story of cold science and heart-warming resilience; of champions and also-rans; of sprinting centenarians and forty-something super-athletes barely touched by age. Its heroes are experts and enthusiasts – scientists, coaches, runners – from many countries, each with a different story to tell.

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Wavewalker: Breaking Free

Suzanne Heywood (King's 1990)

Aged just seven, Suzanne Heywood set sail with her parents and brother on a three-year voyage around the world. What followed turned instead into a decade-long way of life, through storms, shipwrecks, reefs and isolation, with little formal schooling. No-one else knew where they were most of the time and no state showed any interest in what was happening to the children. Suzanne fought her parents, longing to return to England and to education and stability.

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