Peter Watson

Peter Watson has written two important volumes on the history of ideas that provide a fascinating and valuable context for understanding history and current affairs, human invention and progress.

 The most recent, Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud (Sep-05), follows the long arc from the invention of hand-axes two million years ago up to the idea of the unconscious at the threshold of the 20th century. This seminal work links people and their ideas in a majestic narrative of human advance that answers questions while provoking thought. The BBC is preparing a series on the book for airing later in 2006.

A Terrible Beauty: The People and Ideas that Shaped the Modern Mind—A History finishes the story told in Ideas (though it was published first). Beginning with four seminal ideas introduced in 1900—the unconscious, the gene, the quantum and Picasso’s first paintings in Paris—it focuses on all the great and many less well known individuals, breakthroughs and events of Western culture that have shape the world we live in.

Peter Watson is a researcher at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge University. He is a seasoned journalist who has written numerous other books. His work has been featured in a series of special programmes for television. He was educated at the universities of Durham, London and Rome.

Possessed of a brilliant sarcastic wit, Peter is a stunning orator and extremely engaging in the classic British style.