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Publication details of all my books, along with quotes from newspaper/magazine/journal reviews and comments by others, plus my links to my articles relating to the books, appear in three sections below:

• Science and History of Science
• Archeology and Scripts
• Indian History and Culture

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​SCIENCE AND HISTORY OF SCIENCE

 * The Shape of the World: The Mapping and Discovery of the Earth
1989-90: George Philip/Rand McNally—with Simon Berthon
(accompanied a Granada Television series sponsored by IBM, shown worldwide) 
--read my related review ("Hell in the Pacific") in Nature
--read my related feature ("How do we know how to measure longitude?") in (BBC) Focus

 * Earthshock: Hurricanes, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Tornadoes and Other Forces of Nature 
1993: Thames & Hudson, rev. edn 2002 
(translated into four languages; it won the US-based Association of Earth Science Editors Outstanding Publication Award for 1994)

• "A wonderful compilation of the things that can happen when our planet does no more than turn in its long sleep."

        (James Lovelock, geochemist and environmentalist)

• "The pictures alone make this book worthwhile for anyone interested in the workings of the world. ... Combined with the text, they make Earthshock a wonderful book for anyone curious about natural phenomena—I would have loved a copy for Christmas when I was a teenager." 

        (Sue Bowler, New Scientist)

• "This is quite simply a delicious book, thought provoking, informative and witty."

        (W. J. Albery, Master of University College, Oxford, University College Record)

--read my related feature ("How do we know the cause of volcanic eruptions?") in (BBC) Focus

 * Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity
2005: PalazzoAbrams; Metro, 2010; rev. edn, Princeton University Press, 2015
(translated into eight languages. Published during the 2005 centenary of Einstein's discovery of special relativity, the book is a biography, with additional contributions, edited by the author, from physicists, writers and others, who include three Nobel laureates--Philip W. Anderson, Joseph Rotblat and Steven Weinberg--plus Diana K. Buchwald, Arthur C. Clarke, Freeman Dyson, Philip Glass and Stephen Hawking)

• "By far the best book about Einstein that I have ever come across" 

        (Patrick Moore, BBC Sky at Night)

• "Of all the books about Einstein that have passed through the Physics World office during the last twelve months, Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity is by far and away the most appealing. The book contains material on all aspects of Einstein's scientific work and private life, including eleven highly readable essays. It is filled with a myriad of familiar and not-so-familiar images."

        (Physics World) 

--read my related review ("Einstein on and off the soapbox") in New Scientist
--read my related review ("Einstein online") in Science
--read my related feature ("Einstein's mysterious genius") at OUPblog
--read an interview with me about five key books on Einstein's life and science at FiveBooks.com
--read my related feature ("Why is Einstein famous?") at Project Syndicate
--read my related feature ("Einstein in Oxford") at PrincetonUniversityPressblog
--read my related feature ("Einstein in Oxford") in Christ Church Matters

--read my related review about Einstein and politics ("How Einstein brought politics into the equation") in The Daily Telegraph

--read my related review about Einstein and quantum mechanics ("Space, time and spooky action") in Physics World

--read my related feature ("The saga of the Einstein Tower") in BBC History Magazine (History Extra)

--read my related review ("Einstein's magnum opus") in Science

--read my related feature ("We just can't stop misquoting Einstein") in PrimeMind, a second related feature ("Thus spake Albert") in Aeon, and a third related feature ("Einstein said that--didn't he?") in Nature

--read my related review about Einstein's travels in the Far East and Palestine ("Einstein goes east") in Science

 * The Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young, The Anonymous Polymath Who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, Cured the Sick, and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone, Among Other Feats of Genius
2006: Pi Press/Oneworld; pbk edn Plume/Oneworld, 2007; rev edn Open Book Publishers, 2023

--see Wikipedia: The Last Man Who Knew Everything

• "It is wonderful to have such an elegant biography of this remarkable man."

        (Philip W. Anderson, Nobel laureate in physics)

• "The name of Thomas Young should everywhere be honoured and revered, and this sympathetic and penetrating study goes far in achieving that exalted aim."

        (Irving Finkel, writer and curator at the British Museum, British Museum Magazine)

        --read the review

• "I must confess that—to my shame—I was unaware of the career of Thomas Young. Clearly he was an extraordinary man. (If I may paraphrase myself: When Thomas Young was my age, he had been dead for 22 years.) And [this] is clearly an extraordinary book."

        (Tom Lehrer, song-writer and mathematician)

• "It is the best biography I have read for many years."

        (Patrick Moore, astronomer and writer)

• "a wonderful testimony to the heights and vagaries of human achievement"
  

        (David Weatherall, Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford, The Lancet)

        --read the review

• "Thomas Young... is a neglected English intellectual hero... whose life and work is properly celebrated in this fine book."

        (Ian Finlayson, The Times)

• "The occasional diagram is almost superfluous, because Robinson's writing is so lucid. In fact the style of the entire book is a wonder. With no flourishes, no time wasting, Robinson calmly deciphers the man and his numerous fields of enquiry. Clearly, Robinson has some polymathic tendencies."

        (Michael Sims, The Los Angeles Times)

The book was cited by BBC presenter Jeremy Paxman as part of a question about Thomas Young on the television programme, University Challenge

--read my related feature ("Thomas Young: physicist, physician and polymath") in Physics World

--read my related feature ("Thomas Young: the man who knew everything") in History Today
--read my related feature ("Thomas Young and the Rosetta Stone") in Endeavour

--read my related feature ("Anonymous polymath") in the British Museum Magazine

--read my related review ("Passionate polymath") in The Lancet

--read my related feature ("Thomas Young, 250 years later") in Science

--listen to a related feature about polymathy including a contribution from me on BBC Radio 4, Monkman and Seagull's Polymathic Adventure

 * The Story of Measurement
2007: Thames & Hudson 
(translated into nine languages; selected as Book of the Month in Geographical, the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society)

• "Andrew Robinson's The Story of Measurement is a fine introduction to the topic. Robinson aims to cover just about everything that is measurable in nature and in man."

        (Eileen Magnello, The Times Literary Supplement)

        --read the review

• "This is a sumptuous book, a sensual pleasure to look at ... crammed ... with beguiling images of anything to do with measurement—from abacuses to zeptograms ... It is, however, intelligently written and always rewarding to dip into."

        (Andro Linklater, Geomatics World)

--read my related feature ("How do we know the length of one metre?") in (BBC) Focus

--read my related review ("Connecting us all: how satellites remade the world") in New Scientist

 * Sudden Genius?: The Gradual Path to Creative Breakthroughs
2010: Oxford University Press

(a study of how genius emerges, with close-up chapters on the life and work of ten artists and scientists: Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Wren, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jean-François Champollion, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Virginia Woolf, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Satyajit Ray)

• "Scientists, like artists, are creative; but a science of creativity sounds another matter. Andrew Robinson's beautifully written book reviews what we know—and more crucially don't know—about creativity, scientifically speaking. No easy explanation of creative genius is possible, as Robinson shows with his carefully chosen case histories of five artists and five scientists."

        (Chris McManus, psychologist, author of Right Hand, Left Hand)

• "Robinson's book ranges widely and well, and he proves himself adept at explaining complex concepts in areas as diverse as physics and Egyptian hieroglyphics. ... through its excellent synthesis of biography, history and theory, Sudden Genius? brings us closer to an understanding of what makes the great artists and scientists tick."

        (Ian Critchley, The Sunday Times)

• "Robinson's ten subjects display his impressive intellectual range. He is equally at home with scientists and artists and, besides the obvious Einstein, Leonardo, Darwin, Mozart and Wren, includes Satyajit Ray, Cartier-Bresson and Champollion, the decipherer of the Rosetta Stone."

        (Peter Forbes, The Independent)

--read my related feature ("Perspiration, inspiration, and the 10-year rule") in The Lancet

--read my related review ("In search of Ramanujan") in Nature

 * Genius: A Very Short Introduction
2011: Oxford University Press

• "Impressively wide-ranging, with illuminating discussions of whether there is a personality conducive to genius, intelligence tests, eureka experiences, and theory that (to quote Edison) 'genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration'." 

        (P. D. Smith, The Guardian)

 * The Scientists: An Epic of Discovery
2012: Thames & Hudson, pbk edn 2023
(translated into nine languages; a highly illustrated collection of biographical essays on some 40 scientists contributed by established scientists, historians and science writers, such as Frank Close, Georgina Ferry, Patrick Moore, Alison Pearn and Martin Rudwick, edited by me)

--see Wikipedia: The Scientists

--see the list of contributors: "a stellar team" (Nature)

• read the review in Nature
• "This excellent celebration of the evolution of science over the centuries should be of broad interest to scientists and non-scientists alike—it will also be a wonderful stimulus to young people thinking about a career in science."
  

        (David Weatherall, The Lancet)

        --read the review

• see a slideshow, "7 epic moments in science history", Huffington Post

 * Earthquake: Nature and Culture
2012: Reaktion Books
(an illustrated history of earthquakes forming part of a series on the culture and science of great natural phenomena; selected for the Scientific American Book Club) 

• "Studying earthquakes is somewhat like the apocryphal medical school dean who tells students: 'Half of what we will teach you in the next four years is wrong. The problem is that we don't know which half.' Robinson conveys this spirit in a lively and well-written introduction to earthquakes and how people discovered, struggle to understand, and try to figure out how to deal with this dramatic, destructive, and still poorly understood phenomenon."

        (Seth Stein, geoscientist, author of Disaster Deferred: How New Science Is Changing Our View of  

        Earthquake Hazards in the Midwest)

• read a review in The Independent
• read a review in Current World Archaeology

--read my related feature ("Shake, rattle and roll") in Minerva
--read my related feature ("How do we know what causes earthquakes?") in (BBC) Focus
--read my related review on Japanese seismicity in E&T (Engineering & Technology) 
--read my related review on an Indian earthquake in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
--read my related review on plate tectonics in Geoscientist

 * Exceptional Creativity in Science and Technology: Individuals, Institutions, and Innovations
2013: Templeton Press
(collection of conference essays from the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, edited by me)

• "Following a series of outstanding books on various aspects of the history of science, Andrew Robinson has now edited a fascinating work which explores the origins of the greatest scientific institutions in the world and their innovations which have changed our lives."

        (David Weatherall, Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford)

• read a review in the Los Angeles Review of Books

--read my related review on inventions that didn't change the world in The Lancet
--read my related review on the rise and fall of the Superconducting Supercollider in Physics World

 * Earth-Shattering Events: Earthquakes, Nations and Civilization
2016: Thames & Hudson

• "Andrew Robinson's Earth-Shattering Events is a truly welcome, and refreshing, study that puts earthquake impact on history into a proper perspective. As he so well states: 'Overall, history suggests that great earthquakes have indeed sometimes been important in the decline, collapse and rebirth of societies.' The book is especially rewarding for those of us who are concerned with the intricate interrelations between natural disasters, human acts (or the lack of them) and historical changes spanning several millennia."

        (Amos Nur, geoscientist, author of Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God)

• "In this innovative and persuasive book Robinson points out that more than half of the world's largest cities lie on unstable plate-tectonic boundaries"

        (Michael Prodger, The Times)

• read a review and a second review in the Sunday Times
• listen to an interview with me broadcast on BBC World Service, Weekend (begins at 37:30)
• read a review in The Times
• read a review in The Daily Telegraph, and my related feature in The Daily Telegraph
• read a review in Geoscientist
• read a review in Physics World
• read a review in Nature
• read a review in Science
• read a review in Geographical
• read a review in Choice
• read a review on shepherd.com
  

--read my related feature ("Use a toad to catch a quake") in New Scientist

--read my related feature ("Earthquakes in political, economic, and cultural history") in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science

 * Einstein on the Run: How Britain Saved the World's Greatest Scientist

2019: Yale University Press, pbk edn 2021

--see Wikipedia: Einstein on the Run

• "Robinson’s evocative account of a transitional phase in Einstein’s life offers a valuable new perspective on this great scientist’s personality."       

        (Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and former President of the Royal Society)

• "This is a jewel of a book, to be read by anyone interested in Albert Einstein, his science, his peripatetic existence, his joys and travails. Einstein here is seen as navigating a ship across turbulent seas, often subject to forces beyond his control, yet steering with determination into the storms of scientific inquiry, on a voyage of survival during which he was helped by important friends in England and beyond."
  (Diana Kormos-Buchwald, General Editor and Director, Einstein Papers Project)
  
• "Robinson’s thrilling new book on Albert Einstein’s relationship to Britain, Einstein on the Run, is the very first study of its kind. It fills a crucial gap in the research on the renowned physicist and humanist. It wears its thorough and conscientious scholarship lightly on its sleeve--it is a splendidly entertaining read. The book utilises many hitherto unknown historical sources and introduces us to every facet of Einstein’s complex relationship with Britain and its people."
  

        (Ze’ev Rosenkranz, editor of The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein)

• "A readable and engaging account of the life of one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century through all the reversals of his childhood and the horrors of 1930s Germany, overcome only by an unbreakable self-confidence, through to his exile in Britain and in America and all the accolades and achievements (with the sorrows and anxieties which accompanied them) for which he is remembered today."

        (Judith Curthoys, Archivist of Christ Church College, University of Oxford)

• "During the 1930s, more than 60,000 Jews from Central Europe found political refuge in Britain, among them the world-renowned physicist Albert Einstein. Far from living in an ivory tower of science, Einstein was a tireless campaigner for human rights and international understanding. Andrew Robinson’s beautifully written book is a timely reminder of the values of affection, tolerance and justice that transcend national boundaries."

        (Daniel Siemens, author of Stormtroopers: A New History of Hitler’s Brownshirts)

• "A wonderful and absorbing account of Einstein’s journey from Germany to Princeton and the scientific and political struggles of the 1920s and 1930s. This book is an absolute page-turner, elegantly written and constantly fascinating; I found it very hard to put down."

        (Stephen J. Blundell, author of Magnetism: A Very Short Introduction)

• "In late 1915, in the middle of the First World War, Albert Einstein compared loyalty to the state with an individual’s relationship to life insurance. Andrew Robinson, in his compelling tale of Einstein’s reception in Britain, describes how the physicist’s initial aloofness and disdain for pinched patriotism evolved into a genuine admiration for British society in sharp contrast to his views on his native Germany. ... Through the prism of Einstein’s relationship with Britain, moreover, Robinson casts in bold relief important insights into the nature and character of British and German societies in the interwar period."

        (Robert Schulmann, former head, Einstein Papers Project)

• "A sparkling study"

        (Barbara Kiser, Nature)

• "Besides the scientific and political contexts of Einstein's life, Robinson's writing beautifully invokes the free-spirited professor's playful personality, charm and good humour ... Robinson's superb work remains compelling throughout."
  

        (Ian Randall, Physics World)

        --read the review

• "This is certainly an engaging book, written by a seasoned biographer, Andrew Robinson, and filled with interesting insights backed up with pictures, poems and quotes from the main protagonists. ... [It] feels a curiously timely book, looking at what it meant to be politically outspoken in a time of political uncertainty."
  

        (Emily Winterburn, BBC Sky at Night)

• "Highly readable... with [Einstein's] stint hiding out in Norfolk serving as an entertaining climax."

        (Andrew Crumey, Wall Street Journal)

• "Robinson's study of Einstein offers a fascinating account of his relationship with Britain. It is rich in unfamiliar and memorable anecdotes from his visits, that cast fresh light on his personality--a beguiling mix of idealism and down-to-earth opinions, free of pretensions or pomposity."

        (P. D. Smith, The Times Literary Supplement)

--read my feature ("How Britain saved Einstein") in BBC History Magazine

 * Einstein in Oxford

​2024: Bodleian Library Publishing

--see Wikipedia: Einstein in Oxford

• ​"Einstein in Oxford is the first book devoted to the scientist's relationship with the city and is an enjoyable insight into his lifestyle and personality, exploring the genius enigma he was."
  (Ben Hardy, feature in Oxford Mail)
  
• "a slim, lively volume ... the book's charm lies in the ephemera of [Einstein's] daily life in the city: a cocktail party, playing violin with the musicologist Margaret Deneke and others, a self-satirical poem Einstein wrote to the absent scholar whose rooms he occupied on one visit, a hilarious dumbshow encounter with the future novelist William Golding." 

        (Michael Gordin, The Times Literary Supplement)

• "'England has always produced the best physicists,' Albert Einstein once said in Berlin in 1925. His high regard for British physics led him to pay three visits to the University of Oxford in the early 1930s, which are described by Andrew Robinson in his charming short book"

        (Matin Durrani, editor of Physics World)

• "Robinson is not the first to explore Einstein's Oxford connection ... but this accessible and beautifully produced little book brings the story to a wider audience. And what a fascinating, poignant tale Robinson tells, briefly encompassing not just Einstein's lectures, but also
  eyewitness accounts of his personality, his music, his liberal politics, and his flight from Nazi persecution"

        (Robyn Arianrhod, Australian Book Review)

        --read the review

--watch an interview with me, one of many interviews with authors recorded by a US bookseller, Sam Hankin, for his Avid Reader Show​

--read my brief feature ("Einstein in Oxford: A 'Barbarian on the Roam'") in Bodleian Library Friends' News Magazine

​​ARCHAEOLOGY AND SCRIPTS 

 * The Story of Writing: Alphabets, Hieroglyphs and Pictograms
1995: Thames & Hudson, pbk edn 2000, 2nd edn 2007, reprinted 2013 and 2020
(translated into twelve languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese; a bestseller)

• "[A] fascinating book"

        (Henri Cartier-Bresson)

        --read a related letter from Cartier-Bresson to me

• "The most accessible and informative book available on the major writing systems of the world"

        (History Today)

• "Rich in images ... well-informed and assured"

        (Philip Morrison, Scientific American)

--read my related review ("Signs of meaning") in Science

--read my related feature ("How do we know the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphs?") in (BBC) Focus

 * Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World’s Undeciphered Scripts 
2002: McGraw-Hill; rev. edn, Thames & Hudson, 2009
(selected by the Softback Preview as Book of the Month)

• "Andrew Robinson has now followed up his beautifully illustrated The Story of Writing with a highly appropriate sequel: Lost Languages, on undeciphered scripts. Many, it seems likely, will never be deciphered—which raises an interesting question. If we cannot always understand messages from our fellow humans—how successful will we be when we receive the first communication from Outer Space?"

        (Arthur C. Clarke)

• "A masterly book. ... Clearly written, dispassionate and entertaining, this archaeological and linguistic detective story will appeal to anyone interested in ancient civilisations and the intricacies of languages and scripts."

        (Brian Fagan, archaeologist)

• "An accessible primer...a potent mix of academic esoterica, code-cracking and controversy—the same giddy cocktail that made The Da Vinci Code such a success, but with much greater scholarship"

        (James McConnachie, The Sunday Times) 

• "Robinson's enthusiasm for the subject is so infectious that you might find yourself trying to crack Etruscan in your spare time."

        (Archaeology)

--read my related feature ("Decoding antiquity: eight scripts that still can't be read") in New Scientist

--read my related review ("Calligraphic conundrum", about the Voynich manuscript) in Nature

--read my related review ("The codes that got away", about unsolved codes) in Nature

 * The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris 
2002: Thames & Hudson, pbk edn 2012 
(the basis for a BBC television drama-documentary, A Very English Genius)

• "Excellent: well researched and clearly presented ... compelling reading"

        (Torsten Meissner, The Times Literary Supplement) 

        --read the review

• "A wonderfully swift and clear biography"

        (The Economist)

• "A superb biography of Michael Ventris, combining a warm account of his life with just enough detail to satisfy those who have knowledge of linguistics or indeed of the classics."

        (Current World Archaeology)

--read my related feature ("Cracking the Linear B code") in BBC History Magazine

--read my related feature ("The code breakers") in Minerva
--read my related feature ("Michael Ventris: the man who deciphered Linear B") in Argo, the magazine of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 

--read my related review ("The master decoders", about an exhibition on Alan Turing and Michael Ventris) in New Scientist
--see also my entry on Michael Ventris in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

 * Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction 
2009: Oxford University Press

• "Accessible and succinct, … [it] is, indeed, a short but excellent introduction to the written forms of communication." 

        (British Museum Magazine)

 * Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-François Champollion
2012: Thames & Hudson/Oxford University Press USA, 2nd pbk edn 2022
(the first biography in English of the man who deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphs from 1822) 

• "An entertaining, highly readable and authoritative biography of the greatest decipherer of all time"

        (Michael D. Coe, author of Breaking the Maya Code)

• "Andrew Robinson's Champollion is a brash genius, with the power to make loyal friends but also bitter enemies ... This is a spirited account of a fascinating subject: the birth of Egyptology ... written with verve, elegance and perception."

        (John Ray, Professor of Egyptology, University of Cambridge)

• read a review in The Financial Times
• read a review in The Independent
• read a review in Nature
• read a review in Current World Archaeology
• read a review in The Wall Street Journal
• read a review in The Washington Post
• read a review in Antiquity
• read a review in Egyptian Archaeology
• read a review in History Today

--read my related feature ("Jean-François Champollion and ancient Egyptian embalming") in The Lancet

--read my related feature ("How do we know the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphs?") in (BBC) Focus

--read my related feature ("Revolutionary codebreaker") in the British Museum Magazine

--read my related feature ("Jean-François Champollion in Egypt") in the Ashmolean Magazine

--read my related feature ("Hero of the hieroglyphs") in Minerva

--read my related review ("The race to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs") in Science

 * The Indus: Lost Civilizations 
2015: Reaktion Books, pbk edn 2021

(the first book to appear in a now well-established introductory series, Lost Civilizations)

• "A great book on a not-so-easy subject!"

        (Michael D. Coe, author of Breaking the Maya Code)

• "Andrew Robinson creates a brilliant portrait of one of the world's most enigmatic early civilisations. In doing so, he crosses the boundaries between different academic disciplines with effortless panache and high learning. This succinct account of the Indus civilisation, its script, religious beliefs and its complex inheritance, places a vigorous, urban society in its rightful historical context. Everyone interested in ancient civilisations should read this eloquent, closely argued biography (it is nothing less) that brings the Indus people in from the historical shadows." 

        (Brian Fagan, archaeologist)

• "The Indus is very well written and eminently readable ... Andrew Robinson deals with all the unsolved problems in a fair manner and with balanced judgement ... a valuable contribution to the literature on the Indus civilisation." 

        (Iravatham Mahadevan, philologist, author of The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables)  

• read a review in Current World Archaeology
• read a review on harappa.com, the leading website for Indus studies
• read a review in Choice
• read a review in Minerva
• read a review in Dawn
• listen to an interview with me on BBC World Service, Newsday
• read a review in the Indian Historical Review
• read a review in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society​
  

--read my related feature ("Unicorns from Utopia") in the British Museum Magazine

--read my related feature ("Deciphering the roots of the Indus civilization") in Current World Archaeology

--read my related feature ("Lost and found") in History Today

--read my related feature ("The mysteries of the Indus civilization") in Minerva

--read my related feature ("Cracking the Indus script") in Nature

--read my related feature about the Indus civilization and war ("Forgotten Utopia") in New Scientist

--read my related feature ("The Indus enigma: a century of decoding") in The Past Magazine

Contributions to books​:

i.  The Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World
edited by Brian M. Fagan
2001: Thames & Hudson
--the section, "Ancient and Undeciphered Scripts"
ii.  The Oxford Companion to the Book
edited by Michael Suarez and Henry Woudhuysen
2010: Oxford University Press
--the first section, "Writing Systems"
iii.  The Great Archaeologists
edited by Brian Fagan
2014: Thames & Hudson
--biographical entries on Jean-François Champollion, Henry Rawlinson and Michael Ventris

iv.  Writing: Making Your Mark

edited by Ewan Clayton

2019: The British Library

--the opening essay, "The origins of writing", to a catalogue accompanying a British Library exhibition, Writing: Making Your Mark​​

INDIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE

​

​A. BOOKS ON SATYAJIT RAY

 * Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye 
1989-90: André Deutsch/University of California Press; 2nd edn, I.B.Tauris/Oxford University Press (India), 2004; 3rd edn, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021

• "An extraordinarily good, detailed and selfless book"

        (V. S. Naipaul, Nobel laureate in literature)

• "I have read this book with profound admiration for its research and the manner in which it has integrated the details. It is an important document as well as a literary contribution."

        (R. K. Narayan, writer)

• "Extremely thorough, often perceptive and at times highly entertaining"
  

        (Salman Rushdie, London Review of Books)

• "A signal salute to integrity"

        (Lindsay Anderson, The Spectator)

• "A glorious book, a feast of research and insight."

        (Films and Filming)

• "Andrew Robinson's exhaustive appreciation is a welcome guide to a fuller understanding of this singular film-maker."

        (Sight and Sound)

• "Impressively researched... Mr. Robinson... uses his informal writing style to illuminate the director's genius"

        (New York Times)

• "Mr Robinson's close analysis of the warp and woof of Mr Ray's work makes an almost unanswerable case for the defence."

        (The Economist)

 * The Chess Players and Other Screenplays
1989: Faber and Faber, with a preface by Satyajit Ray
(the screenplays of Satyajit Ray's films The Chess Players and Deliverance, and the screenplay of Ray's unmade science-fiction film, The Alien, edited by me)
--read my related feature ("Satyajit Ray's The Chess Players") in History Today
--read my related book review ("The last king in India") in History Today

--read my related feature about The Alien ("The unique universe of Satyajit Ray") in Physics World

 * Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema 
2005: I.B.Tauris, with photographs by Nemai Ghosh

(a large-format, lavishly illustrated portrait of Satyajit Ray at home, in the studio and on location, with B/W photographs by Ray's long-time photographer)

• "Nemai Ghosh, a friend of Satyajit Ray for twenty years, is his photo-biographer. Through his visual gift, he allows us to be intimate with film-making, and to feel with great fidelity the drive, the alertness and the profundity of this giant of cinema in all his majestic stature."

        (Henri Cartier-Bresson)

• "Quite magical"

        (Richard Attenborough)

• "A great book"

        (Marc Riboud, photographer)

• "This book makes the ideal supplement to Robinson's Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye, generally rated the definitive English-language biography."

        (Philip Kemp, Sight and Sound)

• "An elegant photo-biography of this immensely powerful director, ... packed with drawings and stills from his 30-plus films. Glancing through it makes one wonder whether it would matter if Hollywood ceased to exist. The problem with Ray is that no single frame can capture the haunting heart of his cinema, but this volume is the closest we may get."

        (Christopher Fowler, The Independent on Sunday)

• "[Ray's] dizzying catalogue of achievement is knitted together by Robinson's expert text, presenting context and commentary that are informed by an obvious deep affection and feeling for Ray's cinema."

        (Christopher Wood, The Times)

  * The Apu Trilogy: Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic
2011: I.B.Tauris

(the story of the making and reception of Ray's most famous films, the Apu Trilogy, in the 1950s)

• "In this study, Ray's biographer draws on a deep immersion in the master's works. He explains not only the genesis of the trilogy on film, and Ray's battles to give his vision form, but its roots in Indian culture. Robinson keeps faith with Ray's own polymathic talents to show how history, art, literature and music all dance behind the haunting shadows on screen."

        (Boyd Tonkin, The Independent)

--read my related feature ("Restored Apu Trilogy returns Satyajit Ray's humane work to theaters") in The New York Times

--listen to a feature about the US screenings of the restored Apu Trilogy broadcast on National Public Radio, All Things Considered

 * Faces and Facets: Satyajit Ray in Colour

2019: DAG (Delhi Art Gallery), with colour photographs by Nemai Ghosh​

--read my related feature ("Ray's Boswell") about Nemai Ghosh, including numerous vivid photographs, in Frontline

Contributions to books, DVDs, press coverage and broadcasts​:

i.  full-page entry on Satyajit Ray in the current Encyclopaedia Britannica
ii.  filmed interview about Satyajit Ray's The Music Room contributed as an extra on the DVD release of the film in the Criterion Collection (2011), and a printed interview with Ray contributed to the booklet accompanying the Criterion DVD release
iii.  programme notes for Satyajit Ray film retrospective at BFI Southbank in London, August-October 2013
Part 1
Part 2
Read my review of the retrospective in The Lancet
iv.  interview with Ray and article on Ray as an illustrator in Sight and Sound
v.  interview broadcast on BBC Radio 4, The Film Programme
vi.  selected portraits of Ray by Nemai Ghosh with a note by me, 2013
vii.  video essay about the making of Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy contributed as an extra on the DVD release of the film in the Criterion Collection (2015)

viii.  introduction to My Adventures with Satyajit Ray: The Making of Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players) (2017)

ix.  obituary of Soumitra Chatterjee in Sight and Sound (2020)

x.   feature on the birth centenary of Satyajit Ray in the Financial Times (2021)

xi.  feature on the birth centenary of Satyajit Ray in the British Museum Magazine (2021)

xii. feature on Satyajit Ray and science in Physics World (2022)

B. BOOKS ON RABINDRANATH TAGORE 

 * The Art of Rabindranath Tagore
1989: André Deutsch, with a foreword by Satyajit Ray
(the first book to carry accurate reproductions of Tagore's 'modernist' paintings, based on an exhibition of his paintings and drawings at the Barbican Centre in London and the Oxford Museum of Modern Art, organised by me in 1986)
--read my related review on Tagore's art in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
--read my related feature on Tagore's art at On Being

 * Glimpses of Bengal: Selected Letters (by RT)--introduction by me

 * My Reminiscences (by RT)--introduction by me

 * Nationalism (by RT)--introduction by E. P. Thompson

 * Selected Short Stories (by RT)--introduction by Anita Desai

1991: Papermac/Macmillan—Tagore classics edited by me with cover illustrations painted by Tagore

 * Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-Minded Man 
1995: Bloomsbury/St Martin’s Press, pbk edn 1997; rev. pbk edn I.B.Tauris, 2009, with a foreword by Anita Desai—written with Krishna Dutta

• "The entire book was a revelation to me ... it brings out very clearly that Tagore was intellectually more perceptive than Gandhi."

        (Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Nobel laureate in physics)

• "One has waited a very long time for a biography of Tagore that did justice to a far more complex and curious mind and life than simply respectful and circumspect accounts allowed. Here it is: thorough, balanced, intelligent, and addressing every aspect of a truly astonishing artist, his life and times."

        (Anita Desai, writer)

• "A fascinating book about a fascinating man, a work that addresses the profound conflict between eastern spirituality and western rationality"

        (Ilya Prigogine, Nobel laureate in chemistry)

• "Excellent ... admirably straightforward, readable, lively, informative"

        (J. D. F. Jones, The Financial Times)

• "It has been a pleasure to read a well-written, well-researched and well-documented biography"

        (Kathleen Raine, The Tablet)

• "A superb biography"

        (Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker, in 2011, the 150th anniversary of Tagore's birth)

 * The Post Office ​(by RT)
1996: St Martin's Press, with illustrations by Michael McCurdy, and a preface by Anita Desai—translated by me with Krishna Dutta 

 * Rabindranath Tagore: An Anthology
1997: Picador/St Martin's Press; pbk edn Picador India, 1999—translated by me with Krishna Dutta

• "This new anthology, edited by Tagore's biographers, is an authoritative introduction to his work."

        (Robert Nye, Literary Review)

• "This well-selected anthology brings together a vivid range of [Tagore's] work: memoirs, short stories, extracts from a novel, a play, and two extraordinary conversations with Einstein. Numerous well-produced photographs add to the atmosphere. The editors provide excellent introductions to each section, a glossary and helpful notes ... A sumptuous book to celebrate Tagore's life."

        (Jeremy Worman, Time Out)

 * Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore 
1997: Cambridge University Press; pbk edn Foundation Books, India, 2005, with a foreword by Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate in economics—edited and translated by me with Krishna Dutta 

(a collection of about 350 letters spanning Tagore's entire life with extensive introductions and notes)

• "A triumphant work of scholarship, expertly annotated and beautifully designed."
  

        (Patrick French, The Daily Telegraph)

• "An indispensable trove for anyone interested in modern India's intellectual and cultural history, beautifully produced and packed with helpful editorial matter."

        (Sunil Khilnani, The Independent on Sunday)

• "Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson have established themselves as the pre-eminent Tagore scholars."

        (K. Natwar Singh, Asian Age)

• "No future editor will be able to ignore the high editorial standard Dutta and Robinson have set in this book."

        (Shyamal Kumar Sarkar, Visva-Bharati Quarterly)

--read my feature "The mathematician and the mystic" in Resurgence, written with physicist Dipankar Home on the conversations about reality between Albert Einstein and Rabindranath Tagore, based on our journal article, "Einstein and Tagore", in the Journal of Consciousness Studies

C. OTHER BOOKS ON INDIA

 * The Coasts of India
1987: Thames & Hudson, photographs by Ashwin Mehta, with an introductory essay by me

 * Maharaja: The Spectacular Heritage of Princely India
1988: Thames & Hudson, pbk edn 2009, with photographs by Sumio Uchiyama, and text by me

• "First published in 1988, ... the [paperback edition] remains a stunning depiction of a world of wealth, spectacle and excess"

        (Juliet Gardiner, History Today)

 * Noon in Calcutta: Short Stories from Bengal
1992: Bloomsbury/Viking India, with a preface by Anita Desai; pbk edn Penguin India, 1993—edited and translated by me with Krishna Dutta

• "Noon in Calcutta is a boldly diverse selection of Bengali short fiction, ranging from fantasy to satire to hard-edged realism. Its editors acknowledge ... Rabindranath Tagore ... as the father of the genre by putting him at both ends of this fascinating and readable collection."

        (Tania Glyde, The Times)

 * India: A Short History
2014: Thames & Hudson, rev. pbk edn 2025

(an introduction to more than four millennia of Indian civilisation from the Indus period until the present day, including a postscript on the prime ministership of Narendra Modi, 2014-24)

• "Pithy, admirable... a most refreshing résumé"

        (John Keay, The Times Literary Supplement)

        (read the review)​​

• read a review in Virtuoso Life
• read a review in the Library Journal
• read a review in History Today
• read a review in All About History

D. ENTRIES IN THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY
--on Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, R. K. Narayan and Sukumar Ray

​​​Books

by Andrew Robinson