Who went into the Black Hole of Calcutta? Who came out alive? And does it matter anyway? Historically not at all, but it is perhaps important to try to understand why such an event (of which the known facts are so at variance with the legend) ever assumed such significance and became one of the few things that anyone knows about India. In The Black Hole (originally published in 1975), Iris Macfarlane tries to answer these questions.The author aims to fill the gap between t...

Apart from water, tea is more widely consumed than any other food or drink. Tens of billions of cups are drunk every day. How and why has tea conquered the world? Tea was the first global product. It altered life-styles, religions, etiquette and aesthetics. It raised nations and shattered empires.Economies were changed out of all recognition. Diseases were thwarted by the magical drink and cities founded on it.The industrial revolution was fuelled by tea, sealing the fate of...

This is a book on the life and times of Robert Chambers, founder of W. & R. Chambers publishers. Although there are now books based on some of his letters and on the impact of one of his books, The Vestiges of Natural Creation, there are no books on the whole man and his life. Written by Iris Macfarlane with Alan Macfarlane, the book weaves together three strands. At one level, it is a biography of Chambers and his family; the portrait of a rise from absolute poverty to great weal...