‘A deeply fascinating, sui generis book by a brilliant scholar-writer, which uses the life story of a Renaissance prodigy to summon an angel-host of ideas, people and stories, all circling the question of language’s ability to transcend the mortal realm’ Robert Macfarlane, bestselling author of Underland

________________________________

Does there exist a form of speech so powerful as to allow the speaker to control the listener, taking over their thoughts and even their will? Renaissance prodigy and polymath Giovanni Pico della Mirandola – the uncontested marvel of an age of true wonders – believed that there was.

The Grammar of Angels tells how Pico dedicated his short, brilliant life to finding a philosophy that would settle the most important questions about human existence. This philosophy would, he believed, provide tools by which man could transcend his mortal limitations and join the ranks of the angels.

At the heart of Pico’s ideas were questions that he traced through the breadth and depth of human thought, from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians to the medieval Arabs and Jews. He made use of everything at his disposal from Europe’s broadening horizons and asked primal questions of himself and the world. Why is it that we can be astonished by beauty? That the hairs on the backs of our necks can be made to stand by intoxicating rhythms and harmonies? That we can be provoked to ecstatic experiences by the simple means of an incantation?

In 1486, when he was just twenty-three, he declared his intention to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and magic against all comers and for which he wrote a speech that is often deemed the ‘manifesto of the Renaissance, even though the ideas it introduced were subject to an unprecedented ban by the Church. He died mysteriously aged only thirty-one.

The implications of his thought were dangerous in the Europe of his day, suggesting as they did that the notion of the individual might be just as much of an illusion as a flat earth or a geocentric universe. Pico’s tempestuous life at the heart of the Renaissance was a testament to intellectual daring, to a human dignity founded in the willingness to think the unthinkable and to peer over the edge of the abyss in search of answers.

We all understand that knowledge shapes the fate of business and the growth of nations, but few of us are aware of the principles that govern its movement. In The Infinite Alphabet César A. Hidalgo, world-renowned for his work on economic complexity, unravels the laws describing the growth and diffusion of knowledge. To understand it, he shows, we must accept that it is not a single thing, but an ever-growing tapestry of unique ideas, experiences and received wisdom: an infinite alphabet that we are only beginning to fathom.

Hidalgo walks you through the ‘three laws’ that predict how knowledge grows, moves, and decays. Through dozens of stories, he takes the reader from a failed attempt to build a city of knowledge in Ecuador to the growth of China’s innovation economy, explaining why aircraft manufacturers in Italy began manufacturing scooters after the Second World War and how migrants like Samuel Slater shaped the industrial fabric of the United States.

By the end of this journey, you will understand everything from why knowledge grows exponentially in the electronics industry to what mechanisms allow knowledge to cross geographic borders, social networks, and professional boundaries.

These principles will teach you how knowledge shapes the world.

‘A deeply fascinating, sui generis book by a brilliant scholar-writer, which uses the life story of a Renaissance prodigy to summon an angel-host of ideas, people and stories, all circling the question of language’s ability to transcend the mortal realm’ Robert Macfarlane

Does there exist a form of speech so powerful as to allow the speaker to control the listener, taking over their thoughts and even their will?

The Grammar of Angels tells the story of Renaissance prodigy and polymath Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the uncontested marvel of an age of true wonders. Pico dedicated his life to a quest to find the sublime; to reconcile all existing thought into a philosophy that would settle the most important questions about human existence. This philosophy would also provide tools by which man could transcend his mortal limitations and join the ranks of the angels. At the heart of Pico’s ideas were questions that he traced through the depth and breadth of human thought, from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians to the medieval Arabs and Jews. He made use of everything at his disposal from Europe’s broadening horizons and asked primal questions of himself and the world. Why is it that we can be astonished by beauty? That the hairs on the backs of our necks can be made to stand by intoxicating rhythms and harmonies? That we can be provoked to ecstatic experiences by the simple means of an incantation? In Catholic Italy, the implications of this line of thought were dangerous and provoked violent reactions, suggesting as they did that the notion of the individual might be just as much of an illusion as a flat earth or a geocentric universe. That there may well be notions of the divine other than the Christian God.

During a tempestuous life at the exquisite heart of the Italian Renaissance, Pico’s life is a testament to intellectual daring, to a human dignity founded in the willingness to think the unthinkable and to peer over the edge of the abyss in search of answers.

‘Combines intellectual brilliance with moral clarity and profound resoluteness of purpose‘ SALLY ROONEY

Award-winning author of The Parisian and Enter Ghost Isabella Hammad delivered the Edward W. Said Lecture at Columbia University nine days before 7 October 2023. The text of Hammad’s seminal speech and her afterword written in the early weeks of 2024 together make up a searing appraisal of the war on Palestine during what feels like a turning point in the narrative of human history.

Moving and erudite, Hammad writes from within the moment, shedding light on the Palestinian struggle for freedom. Recognising the Stranger is a brilliant melding of literary and cultural analysis by one of Granta‘s Best of Young British Novelists and a foremost writer of fiction in the world today.

‘Hammad shows us how the Palestinian struggle is the story of humanity itself, and asks us not to look away but to see ourselves‘ MAX PORTER

‘A supremely gifted communicator’ MICHAEL MAGEE

‘A reminder of the radical potential of reading and the possibility of change‘ OLIVIA SUDJIC

‘Extraordinary and amazingly erudite’ RASHID KHALIDI

In You’re All Talk, linguist Rob Drummond explores the enormous diversity in our spoken language to reveal extraordinary insights into how humans operate: how we perceive (and judge) other people and how we would like ourselves to be perceived. He investigates how and why we automatically associate different accents with particular social characteristics – degrees of friendliness, authority, social class, level of education, race, and so on – and how we, consciously or subconsciously, change the way we speak in order to create different versions of ourselves to fit different environments.

Ultimately, You’re All Talk demonstrates the beauty of linguistic diversity and how embracing it can give us a better understanding of other people – and ourselves.

By a two-time debating world champion, a dazzling look at how arguing better can transform your life – and the world – for the better

**Previously published as The Art of Disagreeing Well**

Everyone debates, in some form, most days. Sometimes we do it to persuade; other times to learn, discover a truth, or simply to express something about ourselves. We argue to defend ourselves, our work, and our loved ones from external threat. We do it to get our way, or just to get ahead.

As a two-time debating world champion, Bo has made a career out of arguing. Over the past few years, however, he’s noticed how we’re not only arguing more and more, but getting worse at it – a fact proven by our polarised politics. By tracing his own journey from immigrant kid to world champion, as well as those of illustrious participants in the sport such as Malcolm X, Edmund Burke and Sally Rooney, Seo shows how the skills of debating – information gathering, truth finding, lucidity, organization, and persuasion – are often the cornerstone of successful careers and happy lives. Along the way, he provides the reader with an unforgettable toolkit to use debate as a means to improve their own.

This book is an everyperson’s guide to disagreeing well, so that the outcome of having had an argument is better than not having it at all. Taking readers on a thrilling intellectual adventure into the eccentric and brilliant subculture of competitive debate, Good Arguments proves that good-faith debate can enrich and improve our lives, friendships, democracies and in the process, our world.

What is language?
Why do we have it?
Why does that matter?

Language is perhaps humanity’s most astonishing accomplishment and one that remains poorly understood.

Upending centuries of scholarship (including, most recently, Chomsky and Pinker) The Language Game shows how people learn to talk not by acquiring fixed meanings and rules, but by picking up, reusing, and recombining countless linguistic fragments in novel ways.

Drawing on entertaining and persuasive examples from across the world the book explains:

· How our short-lived memory copes with the on-rushing deluge of sound that is everyday speech.
· Why it is that language is such a challenge for language scientists but learnt effortlessly by toddlers.
· Why the languages of the world are so spectacularly varied—and why no two people speak quite the same language.
· Why humans have language, but chimps don’t.
· How language gave us a big brain and changed the course of evolution.
· How language doesn’t limit, but does shape, how we think.
·And ultimately, why all we know about language should give us hope.

Christiansen and Chater’s The Language Game draws on a fascinating range of examples to show the way language works, has shaped our evolution and is critical to our future.

Who was “the first speaker” and what was their first message?

An erudite, tightly woven and beautifully written account of one of humanity’s greatest mysteries – the origins of language.

Drawing on evidence from many fields, including archaeology, anthropology, neurology and linguistics, Sverker Johansson weaves these disparate threads together to show how our human ancestors evolved into language users. The Dawn of Language provides a fascinating survey of how grammar came into being and the differences or similarities between languages spoken around the world, before exploring how language eventually emerged in the very remote human past.

Our intellectual and physiological changes through the process of evolution both have a bearing on our ability to acquire language. But to what extent is the evolution of language dependent on genes, or on environment? How has language evolved further, and how is it changing now, in the process of globalisation? And which aspects of language ensure that robots are not yet intelligent enough to reconstruct how language has evolved?

Johansson’s far-reaching, authoritative and research-based approach to language is brought to life through dozens of astonishing examples, both human and animal, in a fascinatingly erudite and entertaining volume for anyone who has ever contemplated not just why we speak the way we do, but why we speak at all.

Translated from the Swedish by Frank Perry

The words used to express what is seen in the world are vital to an appreciation of it – language is a key component in the call of the wild. As words vanish from a language, it follows that what they describe may disappear. Words deepen understanding of what is seen, and what is seen comes more vividly to life through the words used to describe it. As the natural world and the time spent in it diminish in the face of modern life, it’s more vital than ever to recall it into being with the magic of language.

Each of the 75 words will have a 100-word description, including its pronunciation, a geographical/historical/cultural background, as well as reflecting on the emotional/mindful response the natural phenomenon can inspire. Each word will be paired with an illustration

Examples of words:
MÃ¥ngata. Sweden. Noun. The path of light that the moon makes on water.
Sugar weather. Canada. Noun. A period of warm days and cold nights – the perfect weather to start the sap flowing in maple trees.
Rudenja. Lithuania. The way nature begins to feel as autumn takes hold and the vestiges of summer disappear.
Komorebi. Japan. Noun. Beams of sunlight filtering down through the trees.