Science, politics, history – Matthew Cobb’s blog

Daniel Cordier writes about his life and Jean Moulin

2009-06-14T22:21:26Z

Here's an article I tried to get published in the British and US press, but which no one wanted... :-( For most people who knew Daniel Cordier in post-war Paris – be they Jean-Paul Sartre, Picasso, or simply the people who walked past his art...

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The malleability of memory or, the biter bit

2009-03-17T15:28:23Z

In a previous blog about a year ago (scroll down) I recalled the story of my history teacher playing us a taped interview with Kerensky, the Russian Prime Minister from 1917, who ended his days in Blackpool. Today I had the delightful experience o...

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Robbie Burns, birds and love

2009-01-28T15:54:47Z

Last week it was the 250th anniversary of Robbie Burns, the great Scottish poet and radical. One of his many songs, the lovely 'Now Westlin Winds', was recorded by Dick Gaughan in 1978. Describing how he goes out in the woods one night thinking of...

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The problems of publishing

2009-01-16T17:05:16Z

We've had to change the cover of my book, The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis, which is due out in the UK in June, published by Simon & Schuster. I discovered that another book about the period, dealing with the oral memories of SOE...

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Draft cover of my upcoming book

2008-11-09T10:00:47Z

I've tried to send this image of the cover of my new book to various friends, but it often doesn't work (I suspect they are using a PC...). So here it is for everyone to see. A prize for anyone who can spot the problem with the photo on the front ...

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Economic crisis: "C'est la chute finale!"

2008-10-10T21:16:03Z

In W H Auden's poem "In memory of W B Yeats", he describes how "the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the Bourse". Well they're not doing that today! French TV tonight showed scenes from the trading rooms where there's a trader sin...

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Bill Ford (1953-2007)

2008-03-16T11:57:29Z

I just learned of the death of an old friend and comrade of mine, Bill Ford. Bill could be infuriatingly pedantic (not surprising - he was a translator, after all), but he was incredibly generous, and great company. I spent many afternoons watchin...

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Resistance fighters and terrorists

2008-03-13T11:57:53Z

[This is an article I wrote for the LA Times. They liked it, but felt it didn't make enough of a point to be worth publishing. You decide.] 65 years ago today, one of the first blows that led to D-Day and the Liberation of France was struck. At 2...

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Trumpet-blowing

2008-03-01T17:41:31Z

The Zoological Society of London has given me the Thomson-Zoological Record Award for Science Communication, for my book The Egg and Sperm Race (published in the US as Generation). I am very proud of this, and extremely grateful to the ZSL!

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Farewell then, Seymour Benzer

2007-12-24T14:42:12Z

I only just caught up with the news that Seymour Benzer died on 30 November. This was widely covered in the US press (eg this obituary in the LA Times), but amazingly there has been nothing in the British press (not even anything in Nature, the we...

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