A Light History of Hot Air (Peter Doherty, MUP, $32.95 pb, ISBN 9780522854077, October) *****

Peter Doherty’s new book conducts the reader through a fascinating tour of the many ways, literally and metaphorically, that mankind and nature have made use of hot air. From man’s attempts to fly, through the applications and effects of technology and agriculture to the ‘hot air’ given off by political and historical figures, the author provides scientific explanations for the chemical reactions of everyday life that affect mankind and the environment. He provides a layman’s guide to the chemical activity that surrounds us and includes us, interspersed with personal opinions on historical figures and epochs which have affected world history. The topics covered range from Peter Doherty’s own introduction to chemistry in his Queensland schooldays to reflections on cancer, the romance of steam trains, World War I aviation and supersonic flight, warning beacons, naval warships, firefighting, dietary practices and the future of the planet. Illustrated with many interesting and amusing personal anecdotes as well as simple scientific explanations, A Light History of Hot Air is both a very entertaining and informative memoir and an intriguing observation of human activity. Packaged in a hardback gift edition, the book will make a great present for the reader of single-subject narrative histories and popular science and is an intriguing guide to mankind’s ingenuity.

Chris Harrington is a bookseller at Books in Print bookshop in Melbourne

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2007, Thorpe-Bowker