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Simon Underdown

Simon Underdown is Senior Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, also at Brookes University, where his research looks at the extinction of Neanderthals. He has written about evolution for the Guardian. Both authors live in Oxfordshire.

Books by Simon Underdown

Anthropology

Joy Hendry, Simon Underdown

oneworldpublications

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Mar 30

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Is motherhood supposed to feel like this?

In her cramped New York apartment, a mother wilts beneath the intense August heat, struggling to adapt to her role as the silent interpreter of her newborn baby’s needs. She is not the first woman to give birth, to hold and carry and soothe and cradle. But the walls of her home seem to press ever closer as she balances on the fragile tightrope between maternal instinct and the longing for all she has left behind.

In this mesmerizing portrait of the first days of motherhood, @szilmolnar lays bare the strength it takes to redefine who you are, rediscovering the simple pleasures of life along the way.

The Nursery is published this May - reading copies available for review!

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Mar 2

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It starts with a single black hair, growing thick and immovable from her spine...

The Weight of Loss by @sallyoliver_writer is a spine-tingling debut about grief and obsession, with a shocking twist of an ending.

Out today in paperback!

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Feb 28

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Brightening up the office this afternoon is a stunning new arrival - finished copies of DUST CHILD! 😍

Weaving between the Viet Nam war and the present day, Dust Child is a powerful, captivating tale of family secrets and hidden heartache from the bestselling author of The Mountains Sing @nguyenphanquemai_

Mark your calendars - coming this April

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Feb 27

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‘Don’t think, dear’ said Balanchine. ‘Just do.’ 🩰

For centuries, being a ballerina has been synonymous with being beautiful, thin, obedient and feminine. It is the crucible of womanhood, together with the harassment, physical abuse and eating disorders endemic at top schools. Can we abide this in a post #MeToo world?

Weaving together her own time at America’s most elite ballet school with the lives of renowned ballerinas throughout history, Alice Robb interrogates what it means to perform ballet today. She confronts the all-consuming nature of the form: the obsessive and dangerous practices to perfect the body, the embrace of submission and the idealisation of suffering.

Yet ballet also gifts its dancers ‘brains in their toes’, a way to fully inhabit their bodies and a sanctuary of control away from the pressures of the outside world. Perhaps it is time to reimagine its liberating potential.

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Feb 15

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From an award-winning Scottish poet, Em Strang, comes an unforgettable novel about memory and radical forgiveness...

Quinn is serving a life sentence for a crime he's convinced he hasn't committed. Surely the authorities have got it wrong, and when they find his childhood sweetheart, Andrea, his name will be cleared. His parole is drawing near when he receives an unexpected letter from Andrea's mother, who invites Quinn to share her home.

It soon becomes apparent that what appears to be a genuine act of forgiveness is influenced by more complex motivations. As they navigate the thorny terrain of guilt, justice and mutual need that underpins their relationship, the story of Quinn's past is gradually revealed, setting in motion a final reckoning.

Quinn is coming this March.

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Feb 9

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Simon Underdown

Books by Simon Underdown

Anthropology

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