Bradbury writes a sort of science fiction that comes from the heart. He writes about the feelings and senses of the people caught in situations caused by science. People on space-ships, operating machines, on other planets, in a fever, at a time when books are burnt. But his magic is recounting the pressures, fears and joys that influence the behaviour of his subjects. He finds stories and aspects worthy of consideration in the most unlikely places, a prarie station, a barbers shop, a Victorian sick-room and even on a blasted heath where knights in armour await the arrival of a deadly dragon which in another era is the Flying Scotsman on its way to Edinburgh Waverley.

Ray Bradbury’s imagination and creative power have produced several novels and many short stories. I have listed the title I remember best but reading any collection of his short stories will turn up little treasures.

I read this more than 25 years ago. It is a beautiful novel of a small island community facing the approach of modernisation. The style and format are original and captivating, the language poetic. The stories of the various characters, which start off being told separately, gradually become more and more involved and intermeshed as the novel progresses. As individual stories they are beautiful, sad, exciting, disappointing, hopeful and more; but as they become enmeshed you get a growing insight into the nature of a small isolated community with its trusts and suspicions, its histories and secrets, its shared outlooks and conflicting pressures. It is ultimately a story of hope and resiliance. It reminds one of mankind’s increasing understanding of the need to preserve such lifestyle options as well as assisting such communities to face inevitable change.
It is a book about a community by an author who is very much a part of that comunity and as such it is a book written with love. It is a book which should be given as a gift to friends.

Kurt Vonnegut’s fantastic invention sees the entire history of mankind as simply a response to a delivery problem. I don’t want to give the plot away as this is the central attraction of the novel but I will say that the book is full of the most fantastic inventions, of fascinating characters and extraordinary co-incidences. The novel travels the universe from Earth to Trafalmador and back to Titan. By the time you get to the end you can almost guess what is going on. The ‘theory’ proposed is both breath-taking and staggering in the way it moves us humans from being at the heart of the universe to being trivial and insigificant life forms of no importance whatsoever.
All this is told with Kurt’s tongue firmley stuck in his cheek, and all the better for that. Read this and you will never look at yourself in the same way again!

What must have been one of the most significant journeys of all time. As the result of his observations on this trip Darwin went on the formulate his theory of natural selection and change the entire balance between science and religion. Today, with the understanding of evolution being ingrained into the social understanding of most developed societies, it is hard to recognise just how revolutionary these ideas were.

Alan Moorheads’s book follows Darwin’s journey from childhood through university and on to the three years he spent with Captain Fitzroy on board the Beagle. Moorhead looks at some of the formative events and discoveries and tells the story in a fluent and interesting style.

This book is a wonderfully, illuminating read. Despite being gripping and hugely readable this is nevertheless a detailed and enormously informative book. A really good introduction to the life and ideas of Charles Darwin.