“I have to confess that most of the time I am reading my own books,” says Peter Atkins, professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford. But it’s not as a Wildean indulgence, he says, but because his books flow continuously across his desk as proofs of forthcoming editions: Physical Chemistry is now in its seventh edition (Oxford, 2001). But Winston Fletcher’s Beating the 24/7 (Wiley) shows how others can work ceaselessly but still have a life, he says.
One “sparkling pleasure” is The Unfortunates by Laurie Graham (Fourth Estate). This is the fictional biography of a wayward heroine in the mould of Elizabeth Bennett,…
