Decoding the Hand: A History of Science, Medicine and Magic (November 2025).
Join Alison as she discusses her new book.
Sat 21 Mar 6pm
Soldiers’ Memorial Hall,
Bundanoon
In conversation with Richard Fidler
Recent events
- 25 Nov, 2025 – Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, Magdalen College
- 21 Nov, 2025 – British Library, Mapping the Mysterious. Chaired by Travis Elborough
- 20 Nov, 2025 – Hatchards, Piccadilly, London
- 18 Nov, 2025 – Edinburgh, Blackwells. In conversation with Richard Oosterhoff
- 17 Nov, 2025 – Manchester, Blackwells. In conversation with Ana Carden-Coyne
- 11 Nov, 2025 – Cambridge, Heffers Bookshop. In conversation with Simon Schaffer
Audio & video
Decoding the Hand, Inquiry, WICN Public Radio Massachusetts, 19 February 2026.
What your hands say about you – according to history, History Extra, 11 February 2026, with Elinor Evans.
Decoding the Hand, New Books Network, 10 January 2026, with Miranda Melcher.
Genes and hands: mapping character and health, Start the Week, BBC Radio 4, 24 November 2025, with Adam Rutherford
Telling the future and the past through the palm, ABC Radio, 22 October 2025, with Richard Fidler
The Magnificent History of the Huxleys. Radio National Conversations, February 2024
Brave New World, Start the Week, BBC Radio 4, September 2022, with Adam Rutherford
The Huxleys – a scientific dynasty. The Science Show, with Robyn Williams, September 2024
“Pandemics and Borders” Scrolls and Leaves Podcast, Season 1, Episode 1, 27 August 2020
“The Man we Love to Hate: Time to Re-Appraise Thomas Robert Malthus”, University of Cambridge, May 2016
“The Paper Commonwealth” BBC Radio 4, 21 July 2014
“Apocalypse Concerns over World Population Not New” ABC Radio, 30 May 2014
“Stories from the Sandstone” on ABC TV, 20 March 2013
“Malthus and the New World” on ABC Radio, 30 October 2011
“Writing Science Biographies” on ABC Radio, 20 May 2009
“Darwin & Co” on ABC Radio, 29 January 2009
“Biology at the Border: Interview” in Edible Geography, 9 October 2009
“Australian art takes evolutionary turn” in The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 September 2009
“Australia’s Eugenic Heritage” on ABC Radio, 22 April 2007
“Bird Flu: Risks, Laws and Rights” on ABC Radio, 16 July 2006
Articles & Essays
“The search for meaning: The Huxleys”, New Humanist, Winter 2022: 22-25.
“Overpopulation isn’t a Threat: Elon Musk needs to read Aldous Huxley”, UnHerd, 25 October 2022.
“Pandemic Narratives and the Historian” in the Los Angeles Review of Books, 18 May 2020
“Beyond Quarantine Critique” in Somatosphere, 6 March 2020
“Population lost in the global debate” in The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 April 2008