The scholar of American history and author on the works of Pearl S. Buck, John Hersey and others that sparked his interest in the work of US missionaries and the role of religion in the US
The business world is plagued by bullshit on an industrial scale, but André Spicer wants to help workers escape from its corrosive effects and rediscover meaning
The scholar of East European studies and author of Red Hangover on reading for escape, quoting Lenin at the Model United Nations and understanding everyday life ‘behind the Iron Curtain’
Books editor Matthew Reisz finds the philosopher and social theorist Jonathan Dollimore’s memoir a fascinating confessional despite its omission of his life in work
Two books use graphic formats to address the big questions in physics and the gaps in our knowledge, cross-examining Einstein et al and musing over love handles and farts. Matthew Reisz writes
In his new column that will focus on unusual books and interesting developments in academic publishing, Matthew Reisz considers a strange and mind-bendingly entertaining book
The renowned archaeologist discusses being inspired by Greek myths, Agatha Christie’s life on dig sites in Iraq, and the importance of fieldwork to her writing
The author of 'Twilight of History' on growing up with tales of the Wild West, learning how to do history and deconstructing Jewish and Israeli mythologies
The author of Social and Political Theatre in 21st-Century Britain on Merleau-Ponty and Caryl Churchill, eco-novels and agency, and playwrights’ weather eye on gathering storms
The professor of art and art history and author of Rootsand Culture talks about discovering black history and documenting the black British cultural efflorescence of the 1980s
The professor of medieval history and author of Blanche of Castile: Queen of France on the literary and scholarly stepping stones that fuelled her interest in the Middle Ages
The radical anthropologist and author of Decoding Chomsky traces his interest in animal behaviour, tribal customs and language back to Doctor Dolittle via Tolstoy, Engels and Marx
The professor of neurology on the doctor’s life, treating and befriending a treasured author and bringing memoir, medical biography and pop-sci together in writing Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine
The author of Lenin on the Train reminisces about Alain-Fournier’s Le Grand Meaulnes, and talks about travel books as histories and the ‘surreal time and place’ of revolutionary Russia
The neuroscientist, broadcaster and author of A Day in the Life of the Brain holds forth on pony tales, Giuseppe di Lampedusa's Leopard, Thucydides and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The scholar of international relations and author of Holidays in the Danger Zone on misplaced nostalgia, foreign encounters and the allure of ‘dark tourism’
The novelist and historian, whose latest book is The Hamilton Affair, says the best stories are those that make you care. Her summer plans include lying in a hammock, and reading the perfect number of books – five
The church historian and author of All Things Made New: Writings on the Reformation on the journey from E. Nesbit to Ian Kershaw and the comforting certainties of detective fiction
MP and editor of Reading the Riot Act: Reflections on the 2011 Urban Disorders in England on suburbia, the Famous Five, and the overlap between politics and academia
The author of The Cultural Revolution: A People's History 1962-1976 on dictators and survivors, Dostoevsky and Pushkin, and narrative, truth and fiction
The author of Speculative Blackness on Star Trek and race, fan fiction and graphic novels, and life-changing works by Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Ray Bradbury
The medical anthropologist and editor of Metrics: What Counts in Global Health on New Orleans and Katrina, Naomi Klein and Dave Eggers, Ayn Rand and Ursula K. LeGuin
Sunil Khilnani, author of Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, on his wife Katherine Boo's worldwide success, the wisdom of C.L.R. James and R. G. Collingwood, and the 'deliciously bad ends' of Struwwelpeter
The political economist and author of Will Africa Feed China? on George Orwell, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and mountain-climbing, wine-drinking Tang Dynasty poets
Shelf life: The historian and author of Empire of Things on Karl May, Fernand Braudel, Elena Ferrante and the enduring pleasures of atlases and dictionaries
Wageningen University president and author of Hamburgers in Paradise: The Stories Behind the Food We Eat on her appetite for good books, from Primo Levi to Claudia Roden.