Alumni Services

July 2013

Each month, we bring you a selection of new books written by Edinburgh alumni.

Sophie Hardach

Author Sophie Hardach
Edinburgh Degree Econmics & Politics 2009
Book Of Love & Other Wars

'Of Love and Other Wars' is the second novel by Paris-based graduate Sophie Hardach, following last year's 'The Registrar's Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages'. Before becoming a novelist Sophie worked as a news correspondent with Reuters.

Her latest offering begins at a rally in the Royal Albert Hall, where two Quaker brothers sign a pledge of peace that only one of them will honour. Meanwhile, in a draughty Victorian mansion in Hampstead, Mr. Morningstar wonders why his wife, a crystallographer from a dynasty of diamond cutters, turns into a cursing somnambulist at night, while their daughter, Miriam, comes home from her shifts at the munitions factory with her stockings inside out. As the streets throng with khaki, the Lambs and the Morningstars must decide how to do good in a world transformed by evil.

'Of Love and Other Wars' is available from 29 August.

Anastasia Somerville-Wong

Author Anastasia Somerville-Wong
Edinburgh Degree Philosophy & Politics 2004
Book For Every Season: Reflective Liturgies for Worship

Published by the Pilgrim Press, 'For Every Season: Reflective Liturgies for Worship' is a complete collection of progressive liturgies and meditations in easy, understandable language for worship and personal devotion. With a focus on reflection and meditation, by combining elements from different traditions and innovative ideas, Anastasia's book is a gentle and sensual experience.

David Boyd

Name David Boyd
Edinburgh Degree Medicine 1949
Book Straying from the Path: Doctors Involved in Politics

From the 16th century in the British Isles, doctors have become involved in politics. This book describes those who became elected members of parliaments and the story is carried to the present time. Some answers are attempted as to why they chose to change careers and to what political philosophies they were attracted. Particular attention is paid to the role, or lack of it, of women doctors in politics and the place of those doctors granted peerages who made their contributions to politics through the House of Lords.

After graduating from Edinburgh, David Boyd was consultant physician at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh and honorary senior lecturer in the Department of Medicine. In retirement he has been medical chairman of the Pensions Appeal Tribunal for Scotland and a director of the Scottish Adoption Association.