Neil Hopcroft

[Audiobook] The Last Overland by Alex Bescoby This book recounts the story of an expedition following the return path from the First Overland, a journey from London to Singapore in 1955. A documentary of which launched the career of David Attenborough. The background to this journey and the planning for it are covered. The original […]

[Read aloud to Adelle] Beyond Siberia by Christina Dodwell I found this book in large print lurking in a National Trust second hand bookshop, and I have yet to find a way to resist travel books, especially when they involve tundra. As a book published in 1993 this offers a window into a parochial world […]

Some time ago I tried to write about what I thought was wrong with fiction. Reading the The Science of Storytelling has given me some more insight into that, so I’m going to try again, with a little more knowledge. There are a few parts to it, mostly I think it comes down to there […]

[Audiobook] The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr I have, for a while, been interested in the process of the generation of fictional stories. My interested was piqued by a screenwriting session at Em-fest before Christmas and I wanted to find out more. Also, for a long time, I have been thinking that fiction is […]

[Audiobook] Jet Man – The Making and Breaking of Frank Whittle, Genius of the Jet Revolution This book follows the genesis of the jet engine from idea through to implementation. A fraught journey lead by the tenacious but unstable Frank Whittle. It starts with his vision for an interceptor plane powered by a new type […]

[Read aloud to Adelle] Islands of Abandonment – Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn When I bought this book the woman behind the till told me to look out for the cows, they’re amazing. She wasn’t wrong. This book is a tour of sites abandoned by humans, left for nature to reclaim because […]

[Audiobook] Spacefarers, How Humans will Settle the Moon, Mars and Beyond by Christopher Wanjek. This book fills the gap between the Apollo missions and the world of The Expanse, giving a step by step guide to how our exploration of the solar system could go, and details the kinds of problems we’ll need to solve […]

[Audiobook] Why Planes Crash, An Accident Investigators Fight for Safe Skies by David Soucie and Ozzie Cheek. This book follows the career of David Soucie from arrogant young executive confronting his own guilt about choices he made that lead to the death of one of his colleagues, through to his eventual leadership in the FAA […]

[Read aloud to Adelle] Healing Hands, The Amazing True Story of a Spirit Doctor [available on archive.org] by J Bernard Hutton We went to visit a spirit doctor in Birmingham, the ill-fated journey that brought us A Fools Wisdom and a new scratch on the side of the car, and bought this book about George […]

[Audiobook] Failure is not an Option by Gene Kranz It turns out that failure was an option, on my part at least. This was included for a limited time as a free title in my Audible subscription. I didn’t make it to the end before the time was up. Apollo 13 did come home, which […]