Andrea Wulf – författare

Idag ser vi kanske individens frihet som en självklarhet, men så har det inte alltid varit. Vid 1700-talets slut var individens rätt fortfarande brännstoff i länder styrda av envåldshärskare. I den tyska universitetsstaden Jena vågade en liten grupp tänkare ändå ställa jaget i centrum och betona dess kreativa kraft. Dit hörde bland annat Goethe, Schiller och Hegel och inte minst den frisinnade Caroline Schlegel. Medan den franska revolutionen förändrade det politiska landskapet för alltid förändrade de tyska romantikernas revolution vårt sätt att tänka. Här inleddes den konflikt mellan vår längtan efter självförverkligande och vårt ansvar mot kollektivet som pågår än idag.

On a summer''s day in June 1761, astronomers all over the world cast their eyes to the sky to witness a rare astronomical event: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. It was one of the most important collaborations of scientific history, as by racing to different points around the world and comparing results, these men hoped to unlock the key to one of the most pressing questions of the Enlightenment: the distance between the earth and the sun, which would allow them to calculate the dimensions of our solar system. For the first time, scientists from across the globe came together - despite politics, wars, trade disputes, terrible weather and bitter rivalry - to measure the universe.Transits of Venus come in pairs, eight years apart - the next one will be June 2012, and won''t occur again until December 2117. We will therefore be the last people for more than a century to see a phenomenon that inspired scientists from all over the world to work together for the first time in the history of mankind. A thrilling adventure story, an inspiring tale of Enlightenment science, and a hugely informative slice of intellectual history with Britain at its centre, Chasing Venus is this decade''s Longitude.

A follow-up to Andrea Wulf''s award-winning and critically acclaimed history of British gardening, this is the story of how George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison''s passion for nature, plants, agriculture and gardens shaped the birth of America.Through a series of vignettes spanning the Declaration of Independence to the death of Adams and Jefferson exactly fifty years to the day afterwards, these stories that weave the political, the personal and the botanical and are in turns funny, fascinating and moving. The Founding Gardeners shows that it is impossible to understand these visionary men and the American nation without considering their love of gardening.

Meet Alexander von Humboldt: the great lost scientist, visionary, thinker and daring explorer; the man who first predicted climate change, who has more things named after him than anyone else (including a sea on the moon), and who has inspired generations of writers, thinkers and revolutionaries . . . In The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, 88-year-old Humboldt takes us on a fantastic voyage, back through his life, tracing his footsteps around the rainforests, mountains and crocodile-infested rivers of South America when he was a young man. Travel with him to Venezuela, to Lake Valencia, the Llanos and the Orinocco, and follow him during his time in Cuba, Cartagena, Bogota and his one-year trek across the Andes, as he climbs the volcano Chimborazo, explores Inca monuments, and visits Washington D.C. to meet Thomas Jefferson and campaign for the abolition of slavery. With encounters with indigenous peoples, missionaries, colonists and jaguars, and incorporating Humboldt''s own sketches, drawings and manuscripts, this is a thrilling adventure story of history''s most daring scientist.

''A witty, gossipy, sparkling history, full of bright jewels of anecdote... Magnificent Rebels is a triumph'' THE TIMES, Book of the Week''Extraordinary... A thrilling intellectual history that reads like a racy, intelligent novel, with a cast of unforgettable characters'' SUNDAY TIMES''Magnificent Rebels is a magnificent book: a revelation which could easily become an obsession'' SPECTATOR''A thrilling page-turner, by turns comical & tragic... My book of the year so far'' TOM HOLLAND''Elegantly written, deeply researched and totally gripping'' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIOREIn the 1790s an extraordinary group of friends changed the world. Disappointed by the French Revolution''s rapid collapse into tyranny, what they wanted was nothing less than a revolution of the mind. The rulers of Europe had ordered their peoples how to think and act for too long. Based in the small German town of Jena, through poetry, drama, philosophy and science, they transformed the way we think about ourselves and the world around us. They were the first Romantics.Their way of understanding the world still frames our lives and being.We''re still empowered by their daring leap into the self. We still think with their minds, see with their imagination and feel with their emotions. We also still walk the same tightrope between meaningful self-fulfilment and destructive narcissism, between the rights of the individual and our role as a member of our community and our responsibilities towards future generations who will inhabit this planet. This extraordinary group of friends changed our world. It is impossible to imagine our lives, thoughts and understanding without the foundation of their ground-breaking ideas.

WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARDWINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2016''A thrilling adventure story'' Bill Bryson''Dazzling'' Literary Review ''Brilliant'' Sunday Express''Extraordinary and gripping'' New Scientist''A superb biography'' The Economist''An exhilarating armchair voyage'' GILES MILTON, Mail on Sunday Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the great lost scientist - more things are named after him than anyone else. There are towns, rivers, mountain ranges, the ocean current that runs along the South American coast, there''s a penguin, a giant squid - even the Mare Humboldtianum on the moon. His colourful adventures read like something out of a Boy''s Own story: Humboldt explored deep into the rainforest, climbed the world''s highest volcanoes and inspired princes and presidents, scientists and poets alike. Napoleon was jealous of him; Simon Bolívar''s revolution was fuelled by his ideas; Darwin set sail on the Beagle because of Humboldt; and Jules Verne''s Captain Nemo owned all his many books. He simply was, as one contemporary put it, ''the greatest man since the Deluge''.Taking us on a fantastic voyage in his footsteps - racing across anthrax-infected Russia or mapping tropical rivers alive with crocodiles - Andrea Wulf shows why his life and ideas remain so important today. Humboldt predicted human-induced climate change as early as 1800, and The Invention of Nature traces his ideas as they go on to revolutionize and shape science, conservation, nature writing, politics, art and the theory of evolution. He wanted to know and understand everything and his way of thinking was so far ahead of his time that it''s only coming into its own now. Alexander von Humboldt really did invent the way we see nature.