Carlo Rovelli

The Order of Time

£65

Introduced By Philip Pullman

Translated By Erica Segre and Simon Carnell

The Order of Time is physicist Carlo Rovelli’s number-one bestselling exploration of the universe’s greatest mystery – time itself. Philip Pullman introduces this Folio edition featuring Daniel Streat’s unique graphic design.

The Order of Time

£65
Book Details
 
Presentation Box & BindingBound in blind-blocked cloth, with gold-foil blocking
Blocked cloth slipcase
Printed in 3 colours
Dimensions9½ inches x 5¼ inches
FontSet in Portrait with Euclid as display
Pages216 pages
AuthorCarlo Rovelli
IllustrationDiagrams and integrated illustrations throughout
Publication Date09/05/2023
Editor's Notes
 
Why can we alter the future but not the past, and is there any such thing as the present? We think of time as universal – moving forward, measured by clocks – but look more closely, and it reveals itself to be profoundly strange. In this thrilling dive into the nature of our universe, theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli sweeps away all our easy assumptions. He shows that time flows faster or more slowly in different places, and vanishes altogether through the lens of quantum gravity theory. A number-one bestseller and one of Time’s ten best nonfiction books of the decade, The Order of Time is presented in a Folio edition unlike any other, thanks to award-winning designer Daniel Streat’s superb minimalist graphics. An exclusive new introduction by Philip Pullman, one of the book’s many literary fans, celebrates Rovelli’s rare gift for illuminating ‘ideas and concepts about the nature of the universe that are some of the strangest and deepest ever discovered’.

Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to the physics of space and time. He has worked in Italy and the US, and is currently directing the quantum gravity research group of the Centre de physique théorique in Marseille, France. His books include Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Helgoland and Reality Is Not What It Seems.

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Sir Philip Pullman was born in Norwich and grew up in Wales, though he also travelled extensively due to his father’s work as a pilot in the Royal Air Force. He graduated from Exeter College, Oxford, with a third-class BA in English in 1968 (Oxford later honoured him with a D.Litt. in 2009). As a schoolboy and student he discovered John Milton’s Paradise Lost and the poetry of William Blake, both of which have been significant influences on his own writing. He began publishing children’s fiction while working as a teacher in Summertown, north Oxford, a job he left after the success of Northern Lights (1995; published as The Golden Compass in the United States), the first book in the trilogy His Dark Materials (Folio edition 2008). The trilogy won the Carnegie Medal and, later, the ‘Carnegie of Carnegies’, as well as the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. It has been adapted for stage and TV, and the first book was also the basis for a major feature film. The Book of Dust, another trilogy with some of the same characters and deepening the exploration of Pullman’s ideas, includes La Belle Sauvage (2017; Folio 2021) and The Secret Commonwealth (2019; Folio 2022). Pullman is also known for the Sally Lockhart series and as an editor of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. He has served as President of the Society of Authors and is a notable campaigner for public libraries in the UK.