I've recently made an executive decision to add science fiction to the Popular Science book review site . For some time now I've been doing SF reviews on this blog, but it seemed more sensible to move them over to the science book review site. In part, this is because there was already some fiction on there. I'd featured a number of SF (and maths fiction) books which claimed to concentrate on serious science, using fiction as a way to get it across. So, the borderline was already a little fuzzy. It's also the case that many popular science readers (and scientists) enjoy reading science fiction too - so why not put them together? The Popular Science site will still carry just as many reviews of popular science books - but with a little added SF to spice things up. To kickstart it, I've duplicated all the SF reviews from this site, and will be going live with the first all-new fiction review this week. I'll still continue to review other fiction (e.g. f...

I've a couple of copies of my latest mystery novel, An End to Innocence on a Goodreads giveaway - details below. If you're a Goodreads member, you can put yourself in the running with a click.         Goodreads Book Giveaway                                       An End to Innocence                       by Brian Clegg                                   Giveaway ends August 25, 2017.                                 See the giveaway details             at Goodreads.                             Enter Giveaway ...

Communication is essential for any business or organisation - and the internet has made the need for written communication even more demanding. Yet most staff working in those organisations will have had no help with their writing skills since school. I'm delighted to be part of a new venture, Writing Project , set up by but separate from the Royal Literary Fund. It has on tap a fantastic collection of writers, providing a cornucopia of professional experience in every form of writing, all adept at making written communication sing. Writing Project offers a range of services, notably audits of clients' written material and workshops - there are some example of the workshops offered below, though these can be tailored to the clients' needs. This venture has been under development and gradually taking shape for a couple of years, led from centres in Bristol and Birmingham, though its reach is UK-wide. It's worth consideration by any business or organisation that ...

The latest self-pubbed Capel novel, An End to Innocence I've been a professional writer for over 20 years, but when I first started to get into writing, I wrote a number of novels which, despite getting positive feedback from publishers, never made it into print. For a long time they languished in the electronic equivalent of the back of a drawer, but the relative ease of modern self-publishing made me wonder if it was worth digging them out - and it has been a really positive experience. I've now published five of my Stephen Capel detective novels - three written way back when and just updated to introduce trendy aspects such as mobile phones, plus two written over the last couple of years. I used Amazon's Createspace platform, and though it appears somewhat overwhelming to start with, if you take it steadily it is surprisingly painless. For the interior of the book, I've used the Createspace formatted Word template on offer to download, which provides a very...

Every now and then I like to re-read an SF classic, and there are rarely safer hands to be in than those of Pohl and Kornbluth. I was surprised as I got into it that I couldn't remember a thing about this book - I suspect it's because despite featuring a number of 'adventure' scenes, it is so cerebral. And that is a limitation - but its one that reflects a daring and impressive piece of writing. Wolfbane  starts with what seems to be a fairly straightforward 'rebel in a straight laced society of the future' storyline, with the 'What's in it for me?' main character Glenn Tropile getting in trouble in a society where everything is buttressed by ritual and formality - but that's just the beginning. We get an Earth that has been ripped away from the solar system, just about kept alive by the Moon, recreated as a sunlet every few years. And we have some of the most enigmatic and alien aliens I've come across, pyramids that rarely move and th...

I'm delighted to say that my new book, Big Data is now available... but you may think 'So what?' data's not exactly new. What's the fuss all about? This extract from the introduction explains why: It’s hard to avoid ‘big data’. The words are thrown at us in news reports and from documentaries all the time. But we’ve lived in an information age for decades. What has changed? Big data has enabled Netflix, for instance, to take risks that conventional networks could never afford - and to target its marketing in a way that was never before possible. And big data is not just about business: among other things, it has the potential to transform policing by predicting likely crime locations; to animate a still photograph; to provide the first ever vehicle for genuine democracy; to predict the next New York Times bestseller; to give us an understanding of the fundamental structure of nature; and to revolutionise medicine. Less attractively, it means that corporatio...

To get into this topic I have to admit to a guilty pleasure - when I want to have a totally undemanding half hour in front of the TV to unwind, I rather enjoy the quiz show, Pointless . But the last episode I watched made me think that C. P. Snow's ' Two cultures ' is alive and well on the BBC. In 1959, Snow explored the painful divide between the science and the arts - and the imbalance in that divide culturally. He pointed out that while we expect scientists to appreciate the arts - and the vast majority do - those from the 'arts' side of the divide (which includes most broadcasters and journalists) considered it almost a badge of honour that they knew nothing about the sciences. In many ways (and, dare I say it, in part due to good popular science books and broadcasting) that divide is weaker than it once was - but Pointless presenter Alexander Armstrong (a man with an English degree) demonstrated painfully that there is still a strong support for this sad...