Sound Tracks: A Musical Detective Story

“This is a joyful read. It’s by a leading musical archeologist, which might not be a discipline you even knew existed…The book starts in the present and works backwards. Like an archeological dig, you’re unearthing layer after layer. He goes back to the very origins of humanity and looks at our very ancient ancestors, their sense of rhythm and sound, and how we might detect that through archaeology. Graeme Lawson not only knows an awful lot about archeology. He also knows how to take a squashed bit of metal, recognize that this was a flute from the Middle Ages, reconstruct it, build a replica—and then figure out how to play it so you can hear the sound it actually made. It’s just extraordinary. You can hear the past.” Read more...

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 British Academy Book Prize

Rebecca Earle, Historian