28/08/2026
As summer comes to an end and the bank holiday approaches, we’re back with Part 2 of our tutors’ reading picks! ☀️📚
Swipe to discover what they’re reading and why. ➡️
“Among the books on my summer reading list is The Sacred in Music by Albert L. Blackwell, who describes in intricate detail the legacy of the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, according to whom music has significance for understanding the fundamental features of reality. It’s a fascinating read!”
“Our Oxford colleague Selina Todd’s Snakes and Ladders, a fabulous historical account of the embedded social, cultural and economic blocks to social mobility in Britain. It’s rich in individual stories which show how ideas and experiences of social mobility (or usually the lack thereof) have shifted generationally from the nineteenth century to the present.”
“I recently finished reading Ed Conway’s Material World, which traces the global supply chains and the myriad transformations that convert basic raw substances like sand into technological components essential for modern life, such as high-purity silicon microchips. Conway illustrates the surprising scarcity of seemingly abundant resources, while examining the geopolitical dispersal of specialised manufacturing expertise and the substantial ecological footprint of industrial production. My next book is Ben Hopkins’ Cathedral, a novel on the prolonged construction of a medieval edifice during the thirteenth-century. While working on heritage science and conservation subjects, I often marvel at the ingenuity and sheer ambition of historic builders. I look forward to immersing myself in that world.”
“I’m currently reading the new book by Sue Black, An Expert Witness: Forensic Science on Trial. I recommend it because Black offers a candid look at how forensic science and the law interact from the point of view of her many years’ experience in the expert witness box. She admits to slipping off her shoes in the witness box, and she does the same in this book — she’s informal, funny, no nonsense, humane and very smart. But this is more than a personal account. The stakes are high, she argue
