Tag: science

About the Book

Fourteen stories. Fourteen more poisons. Just because it’s fiction doesn’t mean it’s all made-up …

Agatha Christie is renowned for her captivating plots and creative ways of killing off ill-fated victims. And what better way to add intrigue to a story than poison? The surreptitious ways they can be administered and the characteristic symptoms they produce make these killer chemicals the ideal method of murder in a ‘whodunit’.

Christie perfected the use of poisons in her plots; her deft and varied use of toxic substances is one of her great strengths as a writer. But how is it that some compounds prove so fatal, and in such tiny amounts?

Format: Paperback (320 pages) Publisher: Bloomsbury Sigma
Publication date: 24th September 2026 Genre: Nonfiction, Science

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My Review

In V is for Venom, the follow-up to A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup explores some more of the poisons used by Agatha Christie to kill off characters in her crime novels, everything from arrow poison to snake venom. The author is clearly an admirer of Christie both for her ingenuity and the scientific knowledge that underpinned her plots. Harkup goes out of her way to avoid spoilers for the benefit of those who’ve not read the novels she references, but where these are unavoidable they’re flagged well in advance.

The author identifies the source of each of the fourteen poisons, their effects on the human body, whether an antidote exists and real-life cases where the poison has been used. At the end of the book there’s a table listing all of Agatha Christie’s novels and stories along with the murder method(s) that feature in each one.

V for Venom is definitely not a handbook for would-be poisoners. As the author demonstrates many of the substances are incredibly difficult to come by, determining what is a lethal dose is often problematic, the availability of effective antidotes is greater than when Christie was writing her novels, there is increased knowledge of how poisons affect the body and the ability of scientific professionals to identify poisons is way more advanced. And, of course, you still have to ensure you get away with it.

As the author explains, a poison which kills instantly is rare. It’s more often the case that the administering of the poison is the start of a chain of effects on the body that will ultimately prove fatal if not treated promptly and in the correct way. For this reason, Christie’s plots often place the victim in a position where there will be a long delay before starting treatment and/or identification of the substance involved. And in some cases, which Harkup refers to as ‘hopeful’ murders, the administration of the lethal substance may be left to chance, just waiting for the victim to drink from a bottle containing a toxic substance that has been swapped for something else or to spread marmalade on their toast.

The sections of each chapter which deal with the effects of each chemical on the human body contain the greatest amount of scientific detail. Despite being rubbish at chemistry at school even I was able to understand this thanks to the author’s clear explanations and the accompanying diagrams.

There were many surprises in the book. For example, that the difference between a therapeutic and lethal dose can be small and that whether the substance proves fatal can depend on a number of other factors. For example, the age or health of the victim, the method by which the poison is administered or its interaction with other substances such as alcohol, the latter scotching the notion (no pun intended) that a glass of brandy is the best thing to give to a potential victim of poisoning.

I also learned some fascinating facts:

• Bacteria have been the dominant organisms on the planet for three billion years and can even survive in the vacuum of space
• Christie invented only one poison to kill off a character. It features in her 1962 novel The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side
• Gas was the most common method of suicide in the UK up until the 1960s when so-called ‘town gas’ which contained carbon monoxide was replaced by natural gas
• There is a half-eaten Walnut Whip in a display case in a medical museum in London, a relic of a failed attempt to disguise the bitter taste of a poison with chocolate
• Christie’s story Three Blind Mice has never been published in the UK as it provides the basis for the plot of The Mousetrap and would reveal the identity of the murderer. Famously, the audience are asked not to reveal this information at the end of every performance.

Even if you’ve never read an Agatha Christie novel, I believe V for Venom can be enjoyed as a work of popular science. If you are a Christie fan, it’s probably going to make you want to reread some of the books mentioned just to see the mistakes the murderer made. For those new to Agatha Christie’s oeuvre, why not try two stories referenced in this book – A Pocket Full of Rye, featuring Miss Marple, and Death in the Clouds, featuring Hercule Poirot.

I came away from the book with an even higher regard for Agatha Christie’s creativity and ingenuity, a kind of awed admiration for scientists who have experimented on themselves as part of their research into poisons and, most of all, a renewed sense of wonder at the intricacies of the human body.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Sigma.

In three words: Fascinating, well-researched, accessible
Try something similar: A Pocket Full of Rye or Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie

About the Author

Kathryn Harkup is a former chemist turned author. She writes and gives regular public talks on the disgusting and dangerous side of science. Her first book was the international best-seller A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie, which was shortlisted for a Mystery Readers International Macavity Award and a BMA Book Award. Her subsequent books include its follow-up, V is for Venom, Making the Monster: The Science of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Death by Shakespeare. (Photo: Author website)

Connect with Kathryn
Website

About the Book

In the twenty-first century, we increasingly push our daily routines into the night, carrying out work, exercise and our social lives long after dark. But we have forgotten that our bodies are governed by a 24-hour biological clock which guides us towards the best time to sleep, eat and think. New science has proven that living out of sync with this clock is not only disrupting our sleep, but leaving us more vulnerable to infection, cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and mental illness.

In Life Time, Professor Russell Foster shares his life’s work, taking us on a fascinating and surprising journey through the science of our body clocks. Using his own studies, as well as insights from an international community of sleep scientists and biologists studying circadian rhythms, he illustrates the surprising effects the time of day can have on our health:

– how a walk outside at dawn can ensure a better night’s sleep
– how eating after sundown can affect our weight
– the extraordinary effects the time we take our medication can have on our risk of life-threatening conditions, such as strokes

In the modern world, we have neglected an essential part of our biology. But with knowledge of this astonishing science, we can get back into the rhythm, and live healthier, sharper lives.

Format: Hardback (480 pages)      Publisher: Penguin
Publication date: 19th May 2022  Genre: Nonfiction, Science

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My Review

Although the book’s sub-title, ‘The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolutionize Your Sleep and Health, might give the impression this is purely a self-help book in fact it’s a detailed account of the current thinking, based on scientific research by the author and others, about the effects of the body’s circadian rhythms – the so-called ‘body clock’ – on sleep, physical and mental health.

If I had to place the book on a scale between popular science and academic text, I’d say it tends more towards the latter although the ideas it contains are expressed with clarity and precision.  Some chapters go into more depth than others and I’ll confess there were some sections I skipped entirely because of their complexity.  There are detailed diagrams with even more detailed notes providing supplementary or explanatory information. With a few exceptions, I would say it’s not necessary to read all the additional information in order to understand the concepts the author is discussing or the propositions he is examining. For those wary of embarking upon a book of nearly five hundred pages, over a hundred pages are taken up by appendices, references and index.

Life Time is full of fascinating information and you get a real sense of the author’s passion for his subject. I certainly learned a lot about how much of our body’s functions are influenced by circadian rhythms, everything from saliva production to control of appetite, and how disruption of our body clock can have an impact on our sleep, our cognitive ability, our physical and mental health, even the effectiveness of medication. The book focuses a lot on the impact of sleep and circadian rhythm disruption (SCRD), especially in relation to night shift workers. For example, that this is likely to have been a factor in the accidents at the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear plants or the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

If this is all sounding a little heavy, there are moments of humour. For instance, at the end of each chapter the author includes examples of questions he has been asked at talks and lectures he’s given. My favourite was, ‘If we shouldn’t eat at night, why do they put a light in the fridge?’. Actually, the author demonstrates that there is scientific evidence for what we call the ‘munchies’.  He also provides some useful, and often amusing, analogies. For example, when discussing the relationship between SCRD and stress, that stress is ‘a bit like the first gear of a car engine – it provides rapid acceleration – which can be very useful short term. But if you keep the engine in first gear for a long journey you will destroy the engine’. Or, when discussing the key elements of cognition, that essentially our ‘executive functions are the processes in the brain that allow us to solve problems – like E=MC² – or for most of us, how to turn what we find in the fridge into dinner’. He also demonstrates there is science behind the old adage that you should sleep on a problem.

The book ends with a ‘call to arms’, for more communication about the impact of sleep deprivation on education and employment, especially healthcare, and the actions that can be taken to mitigate this.  My main takeaway from the book is summed up by the author’s comment that ‘what we do when really matters’.

In three words: Detailed, fascinating, authoritative

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About the Author

Russell Foster is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience, Director of the Sir Jules Thorn Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi) and Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Opthalmology at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and was awarded a CBE for services to science. Russell frequently contributes to newspapers, and often appears on television and radio, including an appearance on Desert Island Discs. He has co-written four popular science books, but this is his first as sole author.