Andrew Taylor (3) (1952–)
Author of Books That Changed The World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History
For other authors named Andrew Taylor, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Andrew Taylor is a historian and the author of God's Fugitive, a biography of the great British explorer C. M. Doughty. He lives in England
Works by Andrew Taylor
Books That Changed The World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History (2008) 242 copies, 4 reviews
The World of Gerard Mercator: The Mapmaker Who Revolutionized Geography (2004) 162 copies, 4 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Taylor, James Andrew
- Birthdate
- 1952-02-28
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- journalist
- Short biography
- Andrew Taylor has been a freelance writer since 2004, but he has been working in newspapers, magazines, and television, in both Europe and the Middle East, for nearly 35 years. Before that, so long ago that he can hardly remember, he read English at Oxford University.
After training on the Yorkshire Evening Post, in Leeds, he worked as a political journalist for the Press Association and the Daily Express in the House of Commons, Westminster, and then went to BBC Television News as a national news reporter. From there, he travelled to Dubai to work as a news editor, news reporter, news reader, and news-everything-else for Dubai Television (DTV) for five years, and then came back to England to run DTV’s London office.
He began writing books in the early 1990s. Then after being made redundant in a major reorganisation of DTV – an experience he later wrote about in Burning the Suit – he established himself in freelance writing and journalism.
http://www.andrewtaylor.uk.net/biogra... - Places of residence
- London, Middlesex, England, UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- England, UK
Members
Discussions
Andrew Taylor in British & Irish Crime Fiction (July 2008)
Reviews
Fascinating not only for its portrait of Mercator, but for describing the context in which he was living, between the medieval and modern worlds, between theocracy and scientific rationalism. I would have liked to read more about the processes involved in coming up with his projection, as well as more on the controversies that projection has spawned -- though there is good reason to use the Mercator projection in narrowly technical terms, the cultural and political significance of it is also show more fascinating. Overall though, well worth the $6 I spent (it was on sale), and a well-written, quick but interesting read. show less
I gave it up after three chapters, but that doesn't mean the book is bad. Quite the opposite - it's extremely curious and erudite. The problem is with me - I'm not a Briton, hence can't thoroughly understand and enjoy both broad generalizations and subtle nuances of the British accents and dialects. Yet since I was listening to an audio book - perhaps a format best suited for 'reading' it - even I managed to sneak a peek at a great universe of tongues, existing on a relatively small island. show more Which always fascinates me, Russian, who comes from a huuge territory with almost universal pronunciation and grammar. show less
An acceptable biography of the man who figured out a new way to project a spherical world onto a rectangular piece of paper. Not a bad book by any stretch, but there perhaps wasn’t a lot of source material to work from; I learned at least as much about the Dutch Revolt as I did of Mercator’s life. Design/layout was desultory but functional. Points off for not including an index to all the maps in the book (!!).
Is it possible to pick 50--and only 50-- and rank them as the world's most influential? Yes. That's what Taylor Andrew does in Books that Changed the World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History. The books were chosen from a wide range of fields, including religion, science, arts, literature, and culture. Each chapter is a different book and features the historical and cultural events surrounding the making of the book, a brief author bio, a brief book summary, an excerpt from the show more book, and the cultural significance of the book (or why it's influential). I agreed with every decision, although I found myself saying, "There are so many more books that could have made the list." This is a perfect read for a bibliophile. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 9
- Members
- 599
- Popularity
- #41,951
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 11
- ISBNs
- 690
- Languages
- 13