Overview
A Rum Affair is an absorbing tale of scientific chicanery and academic intrigue—critically acclaimed and a finalist for the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize. In the 1940s, the eminent British botanist John Heslop Harrison proposed a controversial theory: Species of plants on the islands off the west coast of Scotland, he said, had survived the last Ice Age. His premise flew in the face of evidence that the last advance of the ice sheets extended well south of mainland Scotland, but he said he had proof—the plants and grasses found on the Isle of Rum—that would make his name in the scientific world. Harrison didn't anticipate, however, the tenacious John Raven, an amateur botanist who boldly questioned whether these grasses were truly indigenous to the area, or whether they had been transported there and planted. What seems at first a minor infringement of academic honesty soon becomes an enthralling tale of rival scientists and fraudulent science, a skillful whodunit that, in the hands of the talented Sabbagh, joins the ranks of the best narrative nonfiction.
Editorials
New York Review of Books
A story from the dying days of the delightful world of Victorian sensibility and eccentricity.New York Times Book Review
A mix of engaging wit and serious enquiry.New Yorker
Reminds us that the annals of charlatanry go beyond such hoaxes as Piltdown Man and Hitler's diaries.New Yorker
Reminds us that the annals of charlatanry go beyond such hoaxes as Piltdown man and Hiltler's diaries.Publishers Weekly
Class warfare in British universities! Wholesale deception in top research journals! Sedge grasses covertly transplanted to islands in the Inner Hebrides! Clearly fascinated by this long hushed-up scandal in a quiet field, Sabbagh (Skyscraper: The Making of a Building) has produced a fluent, attentive and compact chronicle of scientific deception and detection. Newcastle University's John Heslop Harrison--a confrontational man and a coal miner's son--ascended to the top of U.K. plant science in part on the strength of unusual grasses that he and his students "discovered" on Scotland's Isle of Rum. The classical scholar and expert--but amateur--botanist John Raven found in the late 1940s that Harrison had brought the unusual species to the island in order to later claim credit for finding them there. The "discoveries" supported Heslop Harrison's theory that parts of England and Scotland retained plant species from before the last Ice Age. Wanting to avoid a public controversy, Raven never published his clearest indictment of Harrison, instead making his evidence known to others in charge of classifying plants. The Heslop-Raven controversy could bear all sorts of sociological glosses: did it set a hardworking professor from the provinces against a privileged Oxbridge amateur? Or an arrogant professional against a diligent, careful outsider? Did it show how science can police itself, or how collegiality lets coverups go on? Sabbagh considers all these aspects of the case as he sketches the two men's personalities and those of many other relevant characters. Sabbagh's final chapters consider parallel frauds in other scientific fields, presenting credible explanations for how a few scientists steeped in the codes of their profession perpetrate outright frauds--and how other scientists get taken in. (July) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|Library Journal
Sabbagh, a television producer and author (Skyscraper), here explores a very curious chapter of botanical history. He chases down a 50-year-old open secret of suspected fraud committed by respected botanist John Heslop Harrison, a man who may have planted new specimens on the Isle of Rum off the west coast of Scotland and then claimed them as discoveries. Sabbagh tells two stories: his own attempts to document this incident and Heslop Harrison contemporary John Raven s meticulous efforts to expose the fraud. He presents the story as a thrilling mystery, creating a steady buildup of suspense while avoiding unnecessary detours into sensationalism. Throughout, it is apparent that Sabbagh is fond of the characters despite their flaws and quirks. Yet he also enjoys exposing the behind-the-scenes machinations that overdeveloped egos, personal feuds, and private agendas cause in the advancement of science, a realm often considered purely objective. An interest in botany is only marginally necessary; this book is for anyone who enjoys the thrill of the chase. Recommended for all public and academic libraries. Marianne Stowell Bracke, Univ. of Houston Libs. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.Richard Eder
A mix of engaging wit and serious inquiry . . . a portrait of the academic ecosystem, with its backbiting and back-watching . . . A light though interesting discussion of the occasional hiccup in science's cycle.—The New York Times Book Review