26 Science 73386 TEMPLARS AND THE


SHROUD OF CHRIST by Barbara Frale


The Turin Shroud is one of the most controversial relics of the Catholic church. This swathe of fabric is claimed to be imprinted with the image of the face of Jesus Christ and, for a long time, was kept in the central treasury of the Knights Templar, who were known for their expertise in the field of


relics. There, it was worshipped in a relentlessly secret manner, and known by only a handful of the order’s officials. In an era of wide-spread doctrinal confusion throughout much of the Church, the Templars considered the shroud to be a powerful antidote against the proliferation of heresies. This compelling book tracks them from their inception as warrior-monks protecting religious pilgrims, to the later fascination with their secret rituals and incredible wealth which, ultimately and inevitably, led to their dissolution and the seizing of their assets. Following the Shroud’s pathway through the Middle Ages, a Vatican historian has gone back in time, to the dawn of the Christian era, to provide a new perspective on this much disputed object. 296 pages with abbreviations of series and periodicals. $24.95 NOW £6.50


73049 SONGS OF PRAISE THE NATION’S FAVOURITE


CHURCHES by Andrew Barr This is the story of a journey around Britain to visit and explore 30 buildings that have become much-loved landmarks. Just one example is the building in Goudhurst, founded in 1170 by Robert de Crevecoeur, a Norman


knight, where generations of people have worshipped for over 800 years. Many of the churches appearing in the book were nominated by audiences who listen each week to the BBC Sunday breakfast shows from their local radio stations. Between them, they provide a picture of the wide sweep of church life within Britain today, and the book tries to describe them through the eyes of the people who love them. The author captures the lives of those who built, developed and shaped them, as well as offering human interest stories about the folk who worship in them today. 127 pages 24.5cm x 20cm, over 100 colour photos. £14.99 NOW £5


71192 LITTLE BOOK OF TOMBS AND MONUMENTS by Mike Harding


Harding has travelled throughout Britain and as far afield as New Mexico and Savannah, Georgia and visited and photographed the finest. Here, carved in alabaster or marble or blazoned in glowing stained glass are the medieval couples Sir John and Martha Suckling in a church in Norwich, the Countess of Cumberland in Appleby, numerous tombs and memorials to young children and even the stained glass Thomas the Tank Engine in a Gloucestershire church. Colour photos, 68pp. £6.99 NOW £3


71297 DISCOVERING CHURCHES AND


CHURCHYARDS by Mark Child A guide to the architecture of English parish churches from Anglo-Saxon times to 1900 illustrated with the author’s own many colour photos and drawings of what to spot. Enjoy the fabric, fixtures and fittings of many churches in our land like a ruined church of flint and stone standing in the middle of a prehistoric henge monument at Knowlton, Dorset, through the Norman period, perpendicular, Renaissance and classical, Victorian and beyond. Dozens of effigies, marble and stone statuary, windows decorated with tracery and stained glass are explained. 264pp in paperback. £12.99 NOW £4


71957 SACRED TRAVELS: 275 Places


by Meera Lester


Subtitled ‘275 Places to Find Joy, Seek Solace, and Learn to Live More Fully’, this is a one-of-a-kind travel book with special prayers, meditations and devotions for each sacred site for those seeking a true journey of the soul. There is the Shrine of Rumi in Konya, Turkey, the Govind Devji Temple at Jaipur,


the Bath of Ford Ogianus in Sardinia, St Gabriel Church in Ethiopia, the Temple of Isis in Nubia, Egypt and Apamea in Syria which now lies in rubble. 295pp in paperback.


£10.99 NOW £2.50


71488 HINDU WRITINGS: A Short Introduction to the Major Sources by Klaus Klostermaier


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From the ancient Vedas, through the sweeping epic that is the Mahabharata to the words of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and contemporary teachers like Sathya Sai Baba, the author treads a steady path through the complexity and volume of Hindu literature. He looks at the key areas including Indra, Siva and Vishnu - the major gods and their roles in the scripture and associated sects; Hinduism and femininity in the scriptures; classical Hindu philosophy and theology, nationalism and secularity. 198pp in softback. £9.99 NOW £4


72106 FORTY FAVOURITE HYMNS by Aled Jones


Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, Love Divine, Be Thou My Vision, There Is A Green Hill Far Away, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent, Immortal Invisible God Only Wise, All Things Bright and Beautiful, Jerusalem and Abide with Me are among the great hymns chosen by this emotional singer. A catchy melody, these are pieces of music that stimulate everyone to sing with words that have global meaning. With Aled’s humorous and personal insight. 208pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.75


73045 SAINTS by Scot Bower


Containing engaging narratives, prayers and feature boxes, and accompanied by striking original illustrations that enhance the text, this collection brings the men and women of the past to life, and offers insight into how their concern for devotion, contemplation, stability,


compassion and reconciliation speak to today’s ever- busy world. From Polycarp to St Francis, Benedict to Aidan, Brigid to Clare and many others in between, here are the personalities of both Western and Eastern saints, from the time of the Early Church Fathers through to the mid-13th century. 128 pages, colour illus. £9.99 NOW £3.50


72107 INSPIRATIONAL STORIES OF ANGELS by J. T. Stevens


Here ordinary people share stories of their angelic encounters. An angel is a messenger. Here are some compelling stories of modern-day encounters including a unique interview with Glennyce Eckersley who gives her insight into angels and how she believes they help her. Here is the astonishing story of a man whose angel brought hope as he lay trapped and burned after a horrific accident, and that of a soldier whose angel saved him from a bullet. 260pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £3


72274 THE STORY: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People by Max


Lucado and Randy Frazee Based on the events in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, The Story distils the key characters and adventures into just 31 engaging episodes. Quoting from the clear, accessible, anglicised text of the New International Version, short linking passages connect the reader


to the wider story, and the whole is arranged chronologically so that individual happenings can be interpreted in context. 494 pages with map, time-lines, questions, list of characters. £14.99 NOW £5.50


72302 RITUAL LANDSCAPES OF ROMAN


SOUTH-EAST BRITAIN edited by David Rudling


The book comprises ten extensive essays written by acknowledged archaeological experts and covering such subjects as pagan religion in rural south-east Britain, places of worship in London, the temples at Springhead, Kent and in Sussex and Surrey like the Wanborough temple site, the incredible find of a Gallo-Roman temple at Hayling Island, votive offerings, the fate of pagan temples during the late and post-Roman periods and the co-existence of Christian churches and pagan shrines. This was an absolutely unique period in our history when the traditions of the indigenous Celts, the beliefs of the occupying pagan Romans, the various new religions which originated from further afield in the Empire and were brought here by soldiers, administrators and traders all fused together. Colour and b/w photos, plans, drawings and diagrams. 214 glossy pages, softback, 8¼”×10¼”.


£24.95 NOW £9


72349 KANT: A Brief Insight by Roger Scruton


One of the most influential of the modern philosophers, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is also one of the most difficult to understand. He changed the whole course of philosophy with his The Critique of Pure Reason (1781), remains the most important work of philosophy written in modern times. To provide an elementary account of some of the most complex thought, logic and reasoning processes ever committed to paper is a task that would test the ability of any writer, but Scruton manages this both neatly and elegantly. Illus. in colour and b/w and compellingly written. 164pp. $14.95 NOW £5


73052 THE PEOPLE’S BIBLE: The Remarkable History of


the King James Version by Derek Wilson


It is perhaps ironic that a Bible commissioned by ‘a cheerfully bisexual monarch’ should still be the standard translation referred to by anglophone Christian


fundamentalists in the United States as ‘the King James Bible’ rather than its official description as the


‘Authorised Version’, but this intriguing story is scattered with such fascinating anomalies. Here is the tale of the new vernacular version of the Holy Book in a language that modern English-speakers might just understand, created by the admirers of John Wycliffe in the late 14th century, and then on into the 16th century Reformation, which reversed the prohibition on such translations. Then William Tyndale, an Oxford-trained priest, took up the task anew. His work made him a rebel and he lived in exile in Germany where he paid for translating the Bible into an English now transformed. 222 pages, illustrations in colour. £14.99 NOW £5


73054 THIS SAINT WILL CHANGE YOUR


LIFE: 300 Heavenly Allies by Thomas J. Craughwell


We all know that travellers have St Christopher keeping a celestial eye on them, but did you know that card sharps and con men have their own beatified benefactor, namely one St Camillus de Lellis? Vegetarians, women in labour, schoolgirls, gamblers, lawyers (no, not St Camillus again!), beekeepers, booksellers (St John of God, 8 March is a Bibliophile feast day). Craughwell describes the lives of an amazing variety of holy figures from the Christian faith, revealing how they came to be associated with their beneficiaries and with reproductions of 300 full colour cards depicting these heavenly helpers in all their halo-bedecked glory. 479pp chunky softback. £13.99 NOW £4.50


SCIENCE 73514 WHY? Answers to


Everyday Scientific Questions by Joel Levy


Why are men bigger than women? The question is unexpectedly hard to answer. One theory revolves round sexual behaviour - male gorillas are a lot bigger than female because they have to fight hard to keep their several mates, and humans may have evolved in a similar way. Why does time go


forward? The answer, of course, lies in the second law of thermodynamics, and the author’s explanation is admirably comprehensible. Why is blood red, why is the sea blue, why are plants green? The scientific explanations to these questions are straightforward, but there are other conundrums here which are more a matter of interpretation and there is no right answer. Why did Europe colonise the New World? Why did the dinosaurs die out? Why do we sleep? Why do we forget? Why do we get old? Like many of these questions, the process can be described in scientific terms but we have no idea beyond that of why it happens in the first place. A fascinating read. 192pp, line drawings, diagrams, bibliography. £9.99 NOW £4


73267 THE JOY OF X: A


Guided Tour of Mathematics from One to Infinity by Steven Strogatz


Maths is at the heart of everything and this readable book shows you how that can be. Numbers are a shorthand and they also have a life of their own, obeying laws which cannot be revised or reversed. “Location, location, location” makes


a comparable point using the cumbersome example of Roman numerals, and negative relationships are illustrated by a series of diagrams representing the run- up to World War I. “Change” lives up to its name by being a potentially life-transforming section: the numerical value of the symbol e may hold a clue as to how many people you should date before settling down, though it only works as long as Dreamboat is not playing the same game. In the next chapter calculus is applied to the question of whether a pair of lovers - call them Romeo and Juliet - will love or hate each other over a given cycle. Under “Data” we learn what standard deviation means, crucial in interpreting any set of figures, particularly those published by President Bush relating to the average American’s tax rebate. The author goes on to apply statistical analysis to O.J. Simpson’s trial for murder. Many of the 30 chapters started life as a weekly column in the New York Times, and readers found the experience addictive. 316pp. £20 NOW £6


73277 CYCLES OF TIME: An Extraordinary New View of


the Universe by Roger Penrose


The author, Professor Sir Roger Penrose, has received numerous prizes and awards, one of them with Stephen Hawking for their joint contribution to our understanding of the universe. Here, the professor develops a completely new perspective on


cosmology, providing a quite unexpected answer to the often-asked question ‘What came before the Big Bang?’ The two key ideas underlying this novel proposal are a penetrating analysis of the Second Law of thermodynamics, according to which the ‘randomness’ of our world is continually increasing, and a thorough examination of the light-cone geometry of space-time. Penrose is able to combine these two central themes to show how the expected ultimate fate of our accelerating, expanding universe can actually be reinterpreted as the Big Bang of a new one. On the way, many other basic ingredients are introduced and their roles discussed in detail. Various standard and non-standard cosmological models are presented, as is the fundamental and ubiquitous role of the cosmic microwave background. Also crucial to the discussion are the huge black holes lying in galactic centres, and their eventual disappearance via the mysterious process of Hawking evaporation. Yes, it is difficult, but the professor has a lovely chatty style that we are sure will win you over. 288 pages in paperback, b/w illus with mathematical appendices.


£9.99 NOW £4


71471 101 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT EINSTEIN by Cynthia Phillips and Shana Priwer


Albert Einstein worked to develop hearing aids or that a student actually spotted a mistake in one of his papers? The book makes comparisons with his contemporaries


like the Wright Brothers, Edison, Bauhaus, Fermi, his letters to Freud, his law of gravitation, the history of E=MC2, the curvature of space-time, time travel and worm holes, the Nazi Party and how his anti-nuclear work continued. 244pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £2


71507 RELUCTANT GENIUS: Alexander


Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention by Charlotte Gray


The book reveals Alexander Graham Bell’s passion for invention, and delves into the private life which supported his genius. Bell was far ahead of his times with innovations such as electric heating, using light to transmit sound, electronic mail, flight, genetics, composting toilets and the artificial lung, but as a rule he


73337 BOOK OF THE MOON by Rick Stroud


When Rick Stroud was young he and his brother converted the garden shed into a moon rocket and every weekend they donned their cardboard helmets, sealed the airlock door and began the countdown. Now Stroud lives on a boat and its constant motion in response to the tides means that he is still closely in touch with the phases of the moon. This big, compendious, entertaining book is the result of his lifelong fascination. “I wanted a volume packed with technical detail, lists, diagrams and drawings, a book full of the derring-do of the astronauts.” Today the moon presents a moral challenge as humankind is planning to go there again to exploit its resources. Stroud is convinced that this is a mistake at a time when we have not even succeeded in getting clean water to every human being on the planet. But at the same time he shares the collective madness that wants to go there again because we can. The book is organised thematically, starting with facts and figures, and including Astronomers, Gods and Myths, Astronauts, Cosmonauts and Lunar Exploration, Magic, Medicine, Werewolves and Science. The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union is narrated in detail with a timeline, then a few pages later we see a 17th century etching of an astrologer selling his soul to the devil. A wonderful, wide-ranging book. 368pp, numerous illustrations in black and white and colour.


$27 NOW £7


shunned publicity and was protective about his relationship with his protégée Helen Keller. 466pp paperback, b/w photos plus maps. $14.95 NOW £3.50


71511 SMOKING EARS AND SCREAMING TEETH: A Celebration of Scientific Eccentricity and Self-


Experimentation by Trevor Norton


This fascinating, hilarious and scary book about self-experimenters and other creative scientists starts with the 18th century brothers John and William Hunter who pioneered the dissection of cadavers rather than


allowing surgeons to make their first cut on a living patient. In 1943 Edgar Pask trialled four different types of resuscitation by allowing himself to be anaesthetised to the point of respiratory arrest, while Ray Damadian, inventor of the MRI scanner, did not know whether the human body could withstand the massive magnetic field so tested it himself (it could). 404pp. $24.95 NOW £3


71521 THE FELLOWSHIP: Gilbert, Bacon,


Harvey, Wren by John Gribbin The master of popular science writing describes to us how the Royal Society developed in this story of scientific revolution involving Gilbert, Bacon, Harvey, Wren and Newton. 17th century England was wracked by civil war, plague and fire, a world ruled by superstition and ignorance. But then a series of meetings of ‘Natural Philosophers’ in Oxford and London saw the beginning of a new method of thinking based on proof and experiment. At the heart of this renaissance were the founding fathers of modern Western science - the Royal Society. Diagrams. 336pp in paperback. $15.95 NOW £3


71629 DISCARDED SCIENCE: Ideas that Seemed


Good at the Time by John Grant


Contains research from the fields of medicine, geology, biology, chemistry and many more. Galileo, for instance, was hounded for proposing that the earth was not the centre of the universe with all the other planets revolving around it. In a feast of curiosities, here are bizarre conclusions about alchemy,


homunculi, evolution, aliens and lost worlds, not to mention so-called ‘facts’ which turn out to be nothing but the prejudices of the scientists themselves. 336 pages, illus.


£9.99 NOW £3


71871 PIGEON GUIDED MISSILES And 49 Other


Ideas that Never Took Off by James Moore and Paul Nero


Why did the Victorian Channel Tunnel hit a dead end? Was it simply just too far ahead of its time? Whatever happened to flying cars? Using 50 examples as varied as exploding traffic lights, London’s Eiffel Tower and Nelson’s pyramid,


the authors go in search of history’s lost ideas - the grandiose schemes that never quite took off. 254 pages, illus.


£12.99 NOW £2


73196 BIG QUESTIONS: Physics by Michael Brooks


Confronts the fundamental problems of science and philosophy that have perplexed enquiring minds throughout history, and outlines the answers of our greatest thinkers, such as Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan,


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