Books
All The Knowledge in the World
This is the story of trying to cram everything we know into a few heavy books…
The End of Innocence
It is often hard to remember or explain quite how an idea for a book began, but this one is simple. In April 1993 I wanted to write an …
Dog’s Best Friend
Why is my dog lying at my feet in the shape of a croissant as I write this? How have I come to cherish his warm but lightly…
In Miniature
Not so long ago, bigness was the thing. A big pack was better value. The department store had more of everything, as did Texas.
Timekeepers
This is a book about how the concept of precise time entered our lives. And how everything always seems to get faster and faster.
A Notable Woman
This is a book – a long book, a unique book – about a woman named Jean Lucey Pratt. She wasn’t famous, and she wasn’t …
My Dear Bessie
Twenty four hours have gone since I last wrote. I have been thinking of you. I shall think of you until I post this, and until …
To the Letter
Letters have the power to grant us a larger life. They reveal motivation and deepen understanding. They are evidential. They …
On the Map
The Internet has effected an extraordinary and significant change. Before astronomers faced the gallows for suggesting otherwise …
Just My Type
Just My Type is a book of stories about fonts. It examines how Helvetica and Comic Sans took over the world. It explains why we …
Exposure
This is a story about love, suicide, genius, photography, beautiful women and corrosive artistic despair, but it didn’t start out that way …
Mini
In the summer of 2008, I received an email from a woman who worked for BMW. The Mini would be 50 in May of the following year …
The Error World
The Error World is a book about obsession and desire, and the search for fulfillment. It first came to life in Granta magazine, when …
Private Battles
This book concerns the lives of four ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, and they are not famous people, and they …
We are at War
We Are At War is the second in the trilogy of diaries from the Mass Observation archive. I like to think of it as a sort of Star Wars …
Our Hidden Lives
I’d love to claim full credit for the birth and success of Our Hidden Lives, but I’d feel guilty and get sarcastic phonecalls. The book …
The Last Journey of William Huskisson
I have been interested in trains from a young age, which puts me in a group with about 18 million other men. Oh, it’s the romance …
Mauve
The idea for Mauve came from a book my son Ben brought home one day from school. ‘Chemical Chaos’ contained, in simple …
The Nation’s Favourite
In 1997 I came back from a holiday in California with an idea. I had just read Sarah Vowell’s book Radio On, in which she kept an …
The Wrestling
This book has more mentions of the Boston Crab than anything else I’ve ever written. The Wrestling began as an article for the …
Garfield has a genius for being sparked to life by esoteric enthusiasm and charming readers with his delight.
– The Times
MY JOURNALISM
Yes Fat Chicks
El Cerrito is a rather dull little town in Contra Costa Country, about 40 miles from San Francisco. There are small schools, a Safeway store, low-rise apartment buildings, neat front gardens, …
Blood and Sawdust
You can hear the dogs from afar, yapping, shrieking, scratching at the walls, not their usual noise at all. Twelve big poodles in torment: a terrifying squeal, high and frantic, hanging in the dry …
Meeting Derek
Waiting for the lift by his fourth-floor flat, Derek Jarman says he feels like an 80-year-old man, not only old, but lonely, missing all his friends. Walking along Charing Cross Road towards …