Catching Fire (eBook)

Fascinating ... If Wrangham's thesis is right, we really are what we eat

A breakthrough in evolutionary biology

How exciting to see a distinguished scholar proving unequivocally that cookery is at the centre of our humanity

Intriguing... You need never feel guilty about opting for pie over salad again

His lucid theory is most persuasive

Wrangham draws together previous studies and theories from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, biology, chemistry, sociology and literature into a cogent and compelling argument.

An innovative argument that cooked food led to the rise of modern Homo sapiens.... Experts will debate Wrangham's thesis, but most readers will be convinced by this lucid, simulating foray into popular anthropology.

A completely new theory about how we got where we are. Vindicates cuisine as never before - and will put you off raw food diets forever

[A] fascinating study... Wrangham's lucid, accessible treatise ranges across nutritional science, paleontology and studies of ape behavior and hunter-gatherer societies; the result is a tour de force of natural history and a profound analysis of cooking's role in daily life.

Enthralling

Immensely enjoyable

A new theory of human evolution - 'the cooking hypothesis' - is related in plain-spoken, gripping language.

A compelling and intriguing argument. Brain food at its best

Wrangham is doing no small thing here; he's putting forward - in the most accessible way - his big new theory... Fascinating stuff, convincingly argued

This is one of the best popular science books I've ever read

Catching Fire' is a plain-spoken and thoroughly gripping scientific essay that presents nothing less than a new theory of human evolution...one that Darwin (among others) simply missed.

Ingenious

Daringly unorthodox

I have always believed that cooking is what makes us civilised, but until reading this I hadn't realised this was true at some deeper, actually anthropological level. Wrangham's argument, delivered with a lucidity that is a rare pleasure in an academic, is that it wasn't until our early ancestors stopped subsisting on raw food and began to cook it, thus providing more concentrated fuel, that our brains grew, becoming more sophisticated, and society developed. Wrangham makes his case with brio; this is as unputdownable as a thriller!

Toothsome, skillfully prepared brain food.

As easily digested as the cooked food it champions ... This book packs the punch of a Tournedo Rossini with the lightness of a foam infusion

Wrangham's argument is rigorous and compelling. You would have to be an A-grade, gold medal-winning, premier league arse of mammoth proportions to dismiss it as bunk.