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Inventology
Inventology
Apr 20, 2025 2:57 PM

Author:Pagan Kennedy

Inventology

Find out where great ideas come from.

A businessman struggles with his luggage at an airport and pioneers the wheeled suitcase. An engineer watches people using walkie-talkies and dreams up the mobile phone. A printer is frustrated by his unpredictable inks and creates the Pantone colour system.

Why were these particular people able to identify a problem, and how did they discover the solutions that everyone else missed? Where exactly did their great ideas come from, and how did they go about making them a reality?

In pursuit of answers, Pagan Kennedy has spent her career examining the creative process, interviewing inventors and engineers, scientists, psychologists and economists in a bid to understand how we create. In Inventology Kennedy collects their wisdom and explores a series of landmark inventions, taking us through the processes by which we have come to dream up new products and technologies, and conceived solutions to ‘impossible’ problems.

A must-read for anyone who is curious about imagination, design and innovation, Inventology will inspire and entertain, and will show you how to become more creative.

Reviews

Elegant prose and excellent reporting.

—— The New York Times

Pagan Kennedy helps explore the relationship between serendipity and an inventive mind.

—— Slate

There’s ample interest here even for readers who aren’t actively inventing anything. Each of us, Kennedy writes, has experienced unique events that could turn out to be “the seed of invention.” We’ve all got ideas, and they’ve never been more powerful.

—— Boston Globe

A delightful account of how inventors do what they do.

—— Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Offers a new perspective into the process of invention that will inform and illuminate.

—— Publishers Weekly

Pagan Kennedy's book explores how new tech tools like crowdfunding and 3D printing have changed the game for budding inventors.

—— Tech Republic

A look at the ways people invent, what fuels creativity, and how those methods have changed in the 21st century.

—— The Week

A brilliant apple bible

—— Financial Times , Financial Times

Richard Godwin knows how to take the nonsense out and put the pleasure back into cocktail-making. Intelligent, humorous, crammed full of recipes and knowledge- my new ‘little black book’ guide to cocktailing at home

—— Rebecca Dunphy , Sainsburys Magazine

Informative recipes blended with whimsy and anecdote are given a dash of fun, and finished with a twist of brilliantly wry humour

—— CGA Magazine

A pleasing account of the art of the cocktail...Life enhancing

—— Melanie MacDonagh , The Tablet

If you’re going to buy one cocktail book, you can’t go far wrong with this one

—— BBC Good Food

Richard Godwin is such a smart, funny and intoxicating drinks writer. And The Spirits - accessible, authoritative and crisply written - is the perfect companion for cocktail-curious drinkers looking to seriously up their game.

—— Jimi Famurewa

'The Spirits is the best all-rounder... this stylish recipe book covers a lot of ground with hilarious anecdotes, essential recipes and easy to follow methods'

—— Georgie Darling , Evening Standard

A fantastic read. After I started it, I read it straight through. For more than spaceflight geeks, this is the story of an astonishing adventure that, despite the outward confidence of NASA, could have and perhaps should have gone horribly wrong.

—— Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys/October Sky

A work of great importance … Highly readable and impossible to put down.

—— Dr David Baker, Editor of Spaceflight

A riveting account of the origins, development, and first flight of the Space Shuttle.

—— Roger D. Launius, former NASA Chief Historian

Into the Black isn’t just spectacularly researched, it’s told like a thriller, unfolding the edge-of-death tale of the Space Shuttle Columbia’s maiden voyage in riveting fashion. Rowland White performs a rare feat here, stitching together comprehensive research—countless interviews, declassified files, flight documents—into a tale of courage and daring as streamlined and elegant as the spacecraft herself. Buckle in and hold on tight—this thing's got rocket propulsion.

—— Gregg Hurwitz, New York Times bestselling author of Orphan X

White's research is thorough, his writing style is superb, and he has a gripping and fresh story to tell. This is a genuine 'must-have' book for anyone fascinated by the sharp end of space flight.

—— Piers Bizony, author of Starman, The Space Shuttle and The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

With Vulcan 607, Rowland White demonstrated his mastery of gripping aviation history. Now he ventures beyond the atmosphere, not only taking you inside the Space Shuttle Columbia on its challenging maiden flight, but also into the secret hallways of America’s military space establishment, as he uncovers the heretofore untold relationship between NASA and the world of space reconnaissance. Into the Black is an impressive and unique achievement.

—— Michael Cassutt, co-author of Deke! and We Have Capture

I’ve been privileged to read this fizzer of a book. I grew up in the world of experimental test flying which spawned the first astronauts, some of whom actually I served with, and they popped out at me from almost every page of this book. An astonishing amount of research has gone into this splendid work. I found it totally absorbing.

—— Captain Eric Brown, former UK Chief Naval Test Pilot

A tour de force … blends hardcore science and history with colourful characters of the Tom Wolfe Right Stuff mould and a taut countdown to produce a genuine, real-life, edge-of-the-seat thriller … a masterpiece of journalistic investigation and a compelling piece of story-telling that reminds us that - when it comes to the decades-old space programme - there are still secrets waiting to be told.

—— Nick Cook, bestselling author of The Hunt for Zero Point

White’s work is authoritative and reeks of authenticity, but it also rattles along at breakneck speed. Non-fiction is rarely written like this - Into the Black is infectiously page-turning and impossible to put down.

—— Jon Lake

With this superb book, Rowland White has given us not only the true account of an epic aerospace achievement, but in vivid prose he brings to life the human drama behind the Space Shuttle.

—— Robert Gandt, author of Intrepid and The Twilight Warriors

Into the Black is an extraordinary, carefully researched, tale of the evolution of America’s space program … Anyone who has ever dreamed of being an astronaut will find themselves feeling they are indeed in the orbiter Columbia with Bob Crippen and John Young on that first flight.

—— Hugh Harris, former Director of Public Affairs at Kennedy Space Center
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