John Sandoe Books

A month before Cook was intending to embark on his second voyage, he took his ship, the Resolution, for a test run on the Thames. He had a particular reason for concern: Joseph Banks, the naturalist on the Endeavour, had grandly assembled a staff of fifteen and built a superstructure on the ship. Finding that it rendered the ship hopelessly top-heavy and unsuitable, Cook instructed that it be removed – whereupon Banks threw his toys out of the pram and said he wouldn’t come. His replacement, engaged at very short notice, was a German-born botanist called Reinhold Forster. His field experience came from a trip in Central Asia, on which he was accompanied by his 10-year-old son George. This magnificent book is about that son, who – aged 17 – accompanied his father on the Resolution.

Where his father was a difficult man, detested by everyone, George delighted all who met him. Clever, a fine linguist, draughtsman, botanist and writer, he was also unusually interested in others. Time and again on the voyage, he noted that the contact between indigenous people and Europeans did not go well for the indigenous people, and he was dismayed.

An observant man interested in connections rather than divisions, he was lionized on his return and spent his subsequent years engaging with contemporaries and arguing for what might later be held to fall within the phrase ‘universal human rights’ – including equal rights for women. (He believed that a society could be judged according to how it behaved towards the women.)  

Wulf is a fine writer, immersed in the eighteenth century from previous books and also in what came to be called ecology, thanks to Alexander von Humboldt, the subject of one of her earlier books, The Invention of Nature. It is no surprise to learn that von Humboldt was himself deeply influenced by George Forster. He may not be so well known to history, but Wulf is moved by this man and – on this podcast as well as in the book itself– persuades us that we should know him better.

Signed copies are available.

It is impossible to tell from Renoir’s celebrated portrait of two delightful, pampered-looking girls that its subject — and their family at large — are destined for a horrible end; one of the girls would be murdered in Auschwitz, by then an elderly lady. The world of Catherine Ostler's The Renoir Girls is that of the super-rich Jewish bankers of late C19th France, great patrons of the arts and apparently assimilated, whose position was shown by the Dreyfus Affair to be fragile and reached its appalling conclusions under Vichy. It is the world of Proust and, of course, The Hare With Amber Eyes, whose characters were cousins of the Renoir girls and whose author (Edmund de Waal) soundly endorses this book on its cover. The book is excellent and has received some terrific reviews, which word-of-mouth responses so far have unequivocally supported. 

Interviewed by John de Falbe 

Edited by Magnus Rena

Simard is a genius of modern forest ecology. Her first book, Finding the Mother Tree, was at the vanguard of humanity’s understanding of the interconnectedness of trees and we were honoured that she could come to Sandoe’s to talk to us on our podcast. In this second book, When the Forest Breathes, published in March this year, the Canadian scientist recounts her ongoing research, with profound lessons on environmental degradation and methods of restoration. Once again, her narrative is both compelling and moving. 

Suzanne has kindly signed copies of her book; please email or call to reserve one. 

Interviewed by Arabella Friesen 

Edited by Magnus Rena

Our first podcast for 2026 is with Jane Rogoyska, the author of Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War. Divided into three parts, it tells the story of the influx of mostly German refugees into Paris following the rise of the Nazis, and how the Hotel Lutetia, a grand hotel on the Left Bank, became a focus for them in organizing some kind of resistance to the regime at home. After the German Occupation, the same hotel became the headquarters of Military Intelligence, the Abwehr; and then, after the Liberation, the hotel mutated into a reception centre for deportees returning from the concentration camps. The book has received superb reviews across the media and is immensely readable. 

 

The book is available now at £25 and Jane has kindly signed copies for us. Email, call or order online if you would like a copy. 

 

Interviewed by Johnny de Falbe 

 

Edited by Magnus Rena

We are delighted to have Juliet back on our podcast. Her books have been regular bestsellers at Sandoe’s: The Perfect Summer, A House Full of Daughters, Frostquake, which she spoke about on the podcast in 2020. Her new book looks at the dynamics of corrosive secrets that women have been obliged to keep, how those secrets fit into a broader social context and how exposing them has been a release for many. Her own family is the starting point for her investigation; numerous case studies follow. 

Interviewed by Johnny de Falbe 

Edited by Magnus Rena