MUSTREADS
Out n ow i n p aperback
THE T ELOMERE EFFECT by D r E lizabeth Blackburn a nd Dr E lissa E pel
(Orion £9.99) ‘WHY are some people whip-smart and energetic into old age, while other people, much younger, are sick, exhausted and foggy?’
Nobel Prize-winner Dr Elizabeth Blackburn and health psychologist Dr Elissa Epel have a oneword answer: telomeres. Telomeres are the protective tips at the ends of chromosomes, which act like the plastic caps that prevent your shoelaces from fraying. The shorter the telomeres, the faster the ageing process.
While the way we age is partly determined by our genes, there is plenty we can do to keep telomeres long, and remain fit and active well into old age.
Their book explains the science, with a ‘telomere trajectory assessment’ to help you define which areas of your lifestyle could do with adjustment, and offers positive advice on diet, stress management and exercise for a longer, happier and healthier life.
THE G AMES by D avid Goldblatt
(Pan £12.99) PIERRE de Fredy, Baron de Coubertin was a French aristocrat with a superb sweeping moustache and an unwavering conviction that sport and the arts were equally important aspects of human culture.
In 1892, his call for the establishment of a modern Olympic Games, renewing the tradition of the famous games once held at Olympia in Ancient Greece, resulted in the first modern event, at Athens in 1896.
David Goldblatt’s lively, and sometimes sceptical, history follows the Games from their earliest days, when the athletes established the venerable tradition of moaning about the accommodation, to the most recent events, with all their freight of legacy, debt, politics and drugs.
Scrupulous research, dry wit and a sharp eye for detail ensure that even sports sceptics will find this an irresistible account.
RADICALS by J amie Bartlett
(Windmill Books £9.99) ‘IT’S the hubris of every generation to think that they have arrived at the best way of living,’ writes Jamie Bartlett.
‘But all the things we now take for granted . . . were once derided as dangerous or foolish radical thinking.’
Since World War II, he continues, there has been ‘a broad consensus about the best way to order social, economic and political life’.
But there are signs that this will not continue for much longer.
Bartlett identifies three areas for change: technology, climate change and a loss of trust, especially among the young, in democracy and its associated institutions.
His book is an account of a radical odyssey, which finds him hanging out with transhumanists in Las Vegas and a polyamorous commune in Portugal.