A C Grayling
Man and Beast
So You Think You're Human?
By Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Oxford University Press 179pp £14.99 order from our bookshop
A Brief History of the Human Race
By Michael Cook
Granta Books 385pp £20 order from our bookshop
I ADMIRE FELIPE Fernández-Armesto's erudition and the elegance of his writing. From his broad and copious talents has issued a stream of illuminating history in recent years, and in this short new book their wonted extent is again on display. This time, however, though the mellifluous manner remains, the substance is much more questionable. He seems to me to have got the wrong ends of several sticks, and made a muddle where none need exist: and on a crucial matter to boot.
In the last several decades, Fernández-Armesto observes, we human beings have devoted enormous energy, blood and treasure to the question of human values and human rights. But at the same time, 'quietly but devastatingly', science and philosophy have jointly undermined our concept of humankind. 'And if the term "human" is
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
'This is entertainment of the highest class.'
@NJCooper_crime reviews new thrillers by Mick Herron, Kassandra Montag, @LVaughanwrites, @AuthorSJBolton, @ajaychow, @tombradby, @SaraParetsky, @writejemmawayne & @GillianMAuthor.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/may-2022-crime-round-up
'The day Simon and I Vespa-d from Daunt to Daunt to John Sandoe to Hatchards to Goldsboro, places where many of the booksellers have become my friends over the years, was the one with the high puffy clouds, the very strong breeze, the cool-warm sunlight.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/temple-of-vespa
Some salient thoughts on book collecting from Michael Dirda with a semi tragic conclusion that I suspect many of us can relate to from the @Lit_Review #WednesdayMotivation