Author Archives: Henry Gee

About Henry Gee

Henry Gee is an author, editor and recovering palaeontologist, who lives in Cromer, Norfolk, England, with his family and numerous pets, inasmuch as which the contents of this blog and any comments therein do not reflect the opinions of anyone but myself, as they don't know where they've been.

What I Read In February

Posted on 28 February 2023 by Henry Gee

Dale E. Greenwalt: Remnants of Ancient Life There is more to fossils than bones and stones. Very rarely. soft tissue is preserved too, and Dale Greenwalt reviews what we can and cannot know about ancient life from the occasional scrap of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The Very Hungry Pupperino

Posted on 2 February 2023 by Henry Gee

On Monday, the Very Hungry Pupperino ate a sofa. On Tuesday, the Very Hungry Pupperino ate a set of six mahogany dining chairs. On Wednesday, the Very Hungry Pupperino ate a small semi-detached ex-Local-Authority house in Cromer, Norfolk. On Thursday, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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What I Read In January

Posted on 29 January 2023 by Henry Gee

Penelope Fitzgerald: The Bookshop It is 1959, and widowed Florence Green opens a bookshop in the sleepy Suffolk town of Hardborough. Discovering a strain of quiet obstinacy she doesn’t know she has, she ignores or attempts to sidestep the  polite … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in cal chinn, gary gibson, neil gaiman, peaky blinders, Penelope Fitzgerald, Peter frankopan, Science-fiction, space opera, stealing light, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on What I Read In January

The Last Question

Posted on 25 January 2023 by Henry Gee

In his 1956 story The Last Question, Isaac Asimov has human beings ask computers of increasing power the Ultimate Question. You know, the one about Life, The Universe, and Everything. And the question goes something like this — HOW CAN … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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It Has Not Escaped Our Notice

Posted on 4 January 2023 by Henry Gee

This one contributed by my correspondent Professor Trellis of North Wales and received with thanks. Presumably the injunction does not apply to Residents.
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Hard of Hearing

Posted on 3 January 2023 by Henry Gee

While researching a recent tome I discovered much about the wonder that is mammalian hearing. As the so-called mammal-like reptiles of the Triassic shrank, from the size of large dogs to small dogs to cats to mice to shrews, they … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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My Reads of 2022

Posted on 31 December 2022 by Henry Gee

In 2022 I consumed devoured read 62 books of various sizes, from slim novels to the multi-volume epic that is Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (which I counted as one book). I haven’t read as many books … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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What I Read In December

Posted on 28 December 2022 by Henry Gee

Richard Fortey: A Curious Boy It was the author himself who recommended this book to me, as he said — and I hope, if he reads this, he won’t mind my saying so — that aspects of his book reminded … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in a curious boy, beneath the world a sea, chris beckett, dark eden, edward gibbon, homo deus, life an unauthorised biography, Richard Fortey, the decline and fall of the roman empire, Writing & Reading, Yuval Noah Harari | Comments Off on What I Read In December

Apotheosis

Posted on 30 November 2022 by Henry Gee

You’ll both be aware by now that my recent tome was shortlisted for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize for 2022. You’ll recall that my book kept some mighty company, so imagine my surprise and delight when, at … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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What I Read In November

Posted on 28 November 2022 by Henry Gee

Frans de Waal: Different A salutary and timely corrective to all those engaged in debates about sex and gender that nothing makes sense except in the light of evolution. Humans are animals, and so are our various itches and scratches. The … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in climate change denial, crusades, edward gibbon, frans de waal, gender, gender studies, gerontology, monty python world's funniest joke, Peter Stott, Richard Osman, rose Anne Kenny, royal society science book prize, sex, The Thursday Murder Club, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on What I Read In November

Incompletion

Posted on 20 November 2022 by Henry Gee

I regret to say that today I have had to do something I almost never do, mostly because I really hate doing it – and that’s abandon a book I had been reading. And I had got almost all the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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In The Air Tonight

Posted on 1 November 2022 by Henry Gee

 The dream of any author is having their books on sale in the duty-free shops at major airports, alongside the generic thrillers and self-help manuals. Imagine my pleasure therefore at receiving this snap taken by Professor F___ W___, who spotted … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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What I Read In October

Posted on 29 October 2022 by Henry Gee

Shon Faye: The Transgender Issue I was alerted to this by Stephen: it was something of an eye-opener. From the amount of newsprint and airtime devote to trans people, you’d think they were engaged in a full-scale invasion. Shon Faye shows … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Camp Catastrophic

Posted on 27 October 2022 by Henry Gee

Back in the early days of the present unpleasantness I was engaged to take part in a literary festival in Hay-on-Wye (no, not that one, a different one). Cognisant that Offspring2 is a keen bibliophile, I thought I could take … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Apparitions, automobile association, camper van, Hay-on-Wye, How The Light Gets In, travel | Comments Off on Camp Catastrophic

The Rings of Power: Impressions of the First Series

Posted on 17 October 2022 by Henry Gee

You’ll both be aware that I offered a few impressions of the first two episodes of The Rings of Power, the multi-squillion-dollar televisual emission from Amazon Prime. Now that all eight episodes of the first series (or ‘season’, as we … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in amazon prime, durin, elrond, galadriel, gandalf, gil-galad, halbrand, john garth, Monty Python's Life of Brian, sauroin, Science-fiction, the lord of the rings, the rings of power, the science of middle earth, tolkien | Comments Off on The Rings of Power: Impressions of the First Series