John has been our chief literary critic for more than 40 years and is the author of seminal works on Dickens, Donne and moreThe book I’ve most enjoyed is The Wood Age: How One Material Shaped the Whole of Human History by Roland Ennos (Wm Collins). The apes, Ennos argues, that were skilful enough to reach the fruit-bearing branches on trees grew bigger brains than leaf-eaters and evolved into us. What allowed us to come down from the trees was fire, a wood product no other animal has mastered. So Ennos goes on, brilliant and speculative, to modern times, showing how, at every stage, wood, not stone or iron, has made us what we are. SponsoredChristina’s memoir, Outside, the Sky Is Blue, is published

Source: The Times December 19, 2021 17:55 UTC