Catching the Imagination

Simon Winchester's newest book, due out from HarperCollins in the U.S. in April 2003, is entitled Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883.

Author, journalist, and broadcaster Simon Winchester brought his perspective on "Best-selling Books: Surprise and Stupefaction" to Associates in London on October 15. Mr. Winchester's 1998 book The Professor and the Madman, the story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, caught the full attention of the reading public and found its way onto the bestseller lists. His most recent book, The Map that Changed the World, details the life of William Smith, a British engineer who created the first geological map of England, "the first true geological map of anywhere in the world," and ultimately became the father of modern geology.