C. P. Snow: The Dynamics of Hope

To be published by Palgrave Macmillan Oct 2012

'The strengths of this work are its completeness in dealing with Snow's work and the research done on the original reviews of the fiction. Accessible across academic disciplines, this could become the general introduction to Snow studies for the next academic generation.' - Terrance L. Lewis, Associate Professor, History/Social Sciences, Winston-Salem State University, USA

C. P. Snow was a massive and contentious presence in the twentieth century. Readers relished his novels but critics condemned them; his lectures crystallized crucial issues but provoked fierce attacks; and the two phrases he coined, 'corridors of power' and 'the two cultures', passed into the English language and spread round the world. But since his death in 1980 the full range of his writing has received little attention. This is the first twenty first century book to survey all Snow's novels and his major nonfiction in a clear, lively, informed and sympathetic way. It explores his early genre fiction, his 'Strangers and Brothers' series and his last novels; examines The Two Cultures and Science and Government and the controversies they continue to arouse; considers his biographical accounts of leading authors, scientists and statesmen such as Trollope, Einstein and Churchill; and affirms the continued importance of his work to the world today.