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Pan Mac lands Smethurst's Brief History of Black Holes
Pan Macmillan has landed A Brief History of Black Holes by University of Oxford astrophysicist and YouTube star Dr Becky Smethurst.
Matthew Cole, senior commissioning editor, bought world English rights from Laura McNeill of Gleam Futures. A Brief History of Black Holes: And Why Nearly Everything You Know About Them is Wrong will publish in hardback, e-book and audio in September 2022.
It sees Smethurst chart the scientific breakthroughs that have uncovered the weird and wonderful world of black holes, from the collapse of massive stars to the iconic first photographs of a black hole in 2019, and debunks misconceptions about these strangest objects in the universe along the way.
The publisher said: “In a cosmic tale of discovery, the book will explain: why black holes aren’t really ‘black’, that you never ever want to be ‘spaghettified’, how black holes are more like sofa cushions than hoovers, and why beyond the event horizon, the future is a direction in space rather than in time. Full of wit and learning, this captivating book explains why black holes contain the secrets to the most profound questions about our universe.”
Cole commented: “Becky is one of the country’s most brilliant physicists and who better to explain some of the most mind-boggling concepts known to humankind. Becky is a natural storyteller and the history of how we came to discover black holes is one of the most thrilling and important stories in science.”
Smethurst added: “I absolutely loved writing this book; delving into the history underpinning our knowledge of black holes was like riding the collective train of thought of all the scientists who had come before me. There is so much we still don’t understand about black holes, but knowing the history of where our current theories have come from, can help us chart the next path to discovery.”
