ARGONAUT BOOKS

Taken from his 'Collection of Sand', these essays are not great ideas in themselves but commentaries on great ideas and the physical remains they have left behind them: astonishing objects and human-made places which have encapsulated different senses of wonder and desire. The essays range from fire-temples to world-changing maps, from automata to ancient cities. And, not least, the great enigma that has sat at the heart of Rome for some 1,900 years: Trajan's Column.