Alexander Waugh
A History of Helios
Chasing the Sun: The Epic Story of the Star that Gives Us Life
By Richard Cohen
Simon & Schuster 681pp £30
When Richard Cohen was working as a publisher – he was once publishing director of both Hutchinson and Hodder & Stoughton – he asked every non-fiction author crossing his path to consider writing a book about the sun. They all said no. A slim science book about how and when the sun was formed and how it radiates heat might have interested someone; a short history of sun worship could have been fun; a brief survey showing how the sun has been represented in literature and art might also have found a curious readership; but Cohen wanted more, and the daunting prospect of sitting down to write a 600-page all-encompassing cosmological, cultural, aesthetic, scientific, philosophical and literary biography of the sun was bound to make even the sturdiest trencherman of an author quail. As with the Remington shavers man who liked the product so much he bought the factory, Cohen became so determined that this book should be written that he wrote it himself.
The result is a formidable catalogue of pretty much everything there is to be thought or said about the sun. We learn, for instance, how the Chaldeans divided the heavens into zones and in so doing inadvertently identified the path of Earth’s elliptic journey round the sun; we
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk