Frankly gripping

Ingenious, and brilliantly argued

One of the punchiest evolutionary psychologists now publishing ... a major work of subversion ... it couldn't be more timely

Intelligent, engaging, exasperating and funny

Superb... Stimulating and full of wit

Evolutionary psychology is a young discipline, but Miller, a professor at the University of New Mexico, is using it to shed light on consumer behaviour in a capitalist world, as he believes blunt instruments have been used to examine it in the past

His cost-benefits analyses of showoffery are pure logic, cool, and witty with it, and in the end, add up to an intelligent programme to shift human signalling systems toward more enjoyable forms of display that wont cost us the Earth

A thought-provoking analysis of how marketing really works and it's relationship to our ancient psychological traits

Bestriding with equal ease the very different disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, history and neurology, the author answers com amore the questions posed in the subtitle of this important book. A remarkable achievement.

The author breaks new (to me) ground

As prolific as he is profound, Philip Ball weaves science into culture with a dexterity and virtuosity that avoid any sense of overstretch... Ball can truly make scholarship sing.

The year's most unusual travel book

[An] eye-opening and hugely enjoyable book

Written in a delectable prose that scatters flashes of poetry over a sardonic undertow of social comment, Edgelands is a lyrical triumph. On Britain’s grotty margins, the duo trace “desire paths” to find beauty and mystery in the rough darkness on the edge of town