Timothy Brook
Sapient Sinophile
Bomb, Book and Compass: Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China
By Simon Winchester
Viking 316pp £20 order from our bookshop
I bought my first volume of Joseph Needham’s monumental series, Science and Civilisation in China, from a street vendor in Rangoon in 1976. How Volume IV, Part 1 (Physics) got to Burma is anyone’s guess. Several years into my training as a sinologist by then, I knew that Needham’s books defined the history of Chinese science, and that they could be read for pleasure as well as profit. I also knew that I would never have another chance at a volume of SCC for £2. It sits today on my bookshelf alongside the seventeen of its siblings that I have managed to acquire in the intervening years.
To write the life of Joseph Needham, Simon Winchester chose a different point of entry into SCC. Rather than pick up a thematic volume, he started from the series finale, Volume VII, Part 2 (The Social Background). There he found the long list of Chinese scientific ‘firsts’ that Needham compiled
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
Delighted to have reviewed this —
Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530–1830 by Steven Brindle via @Lit_Review
You can tell it's Christmas... because here's my round up of books for @Lit_Review, feat. @Sally_Nicholls @lcpalmerpoet @laurenstjohn Katherine Rundell @thenickbowling @HelenCooperbook @foliosociety
A sneak preview of THE BOOK FORGER in the bumper Christmas issue of @Lit_Review, featuring a bombshell of a letter that I believe @aarontpratt currently has on show @ransomcenter.