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Synopsis

From the Bestselling Author of The Adventure of English

When we think of great events in the history of the world, we tend to think of war, revolution, political upheaval or natural catastrophe. But throughout history there have been moments of vital importance that have taken place not on the battlefield, or in the palaces of power, or even in the violence of nature, but between the pages of a book.

In our digitised age of instant information it is easy to underestimate the power of the printed word. In his fascinating new book accompanying the ITV series, Melvyn Bragg presents a vivid reminder of the book as agent of social, political and personal revolution. 12 Books that changed the World presents a rich variety of human endeavour and a great diversity of characters. There are also surprises. here are famous books by Darwin, Newton and Shakespeare, but we also discover the stories behind some less well-known works, such as Marie Stopes' Married Love, the original radical feminist Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - and even the rules of an obscure ball game that became the most popular sport in the world...

Definitive, always illuminating and sometimes controversial, the hidden story of these twelve books demonstrates the enduring impact of one of the world's great inventions - the book

About the Author

Melvyn Bragg's first novel, For Want of a Nail, was published in 1965 and since then his novels have included The Hired Man, for which he won the Time/Life Silver Pen Award, Without a City Wall, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Credo, The Maid of Buttermere and The Soldier's Return, which was published to huge critical acclaim in 1999 and won the WH Smith Literary Award. He has also written several works of non-fiction including the bestselling The Adventure of English, Speak for England an oral history of the twentieth century, Rich, a biography of Richard Burton and On Giants' Shoulders, a history of science based on his BBC radio series. Currently he introduces In Our Time on Radio 4. He was born in 1939 and educated at Wigton's Nelson Thomlinson School and at Oxford where he read history. He is controller of Arts at Granada and President of the National Campaign for the Arts, ad in 1998 he was made a life peer. He lives in London and Cumbria.