1.09Kg of CO2
136 litre(s) of Water
0.0082 Tree(s)
1 book donated to global literacy projects
Backroom Boys
Backroom Boys
hardback | English
Published:
6 November, 2003
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Description
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780571214969 |
| ISBN10 | 0571214967 |
| Number Of Pages | 272 |
| Item Weight | 399 g |
| Product Dimensions | 144 x 26 x 214 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Faber & Faber |
| Format | hardback |
| Edition | Second Impression |
Media Reviews
Described in the blurb as 'a vivid love-letter to quiet men in pullovers', this is a fascinating account of those ingenious engineers who invented the technologies of the future, often on a shoestring budget. It opens with the arrival of the first V2 noted by the British Interplanetary Society in a London pub, and we soon read of a surreal meeting between Arthur C Clark, the famous science-fiction writer, and C S Lewis. We learn how Britain cancelled its space program and how Ernest Benn was a good friend to Concorde. The story covers other technologies such as computer games, mobile telephones and mind-boggling efforts with the human genome. It makes for compulsive reading and is the sort of book only British endeavours could produce. It deserves to sell and sell.
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Francis Spufford, a former Sunday Times Young Writer o f the Year (1977), has edited two acclaimed literary anthologies and a collection of essays on the history of technology. His first book, I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination, was awarded the Writers Guild Award for Best Non-Fiction Book of 1996 and a Somerset Maugham Award, and also inspired a Frankfurt Ballet production and a clown show at the Edinburgh Festival 2001. He lives in Camberwell, London.