A compelling read, ranging from the invention of language, via the French Revolution and the Suez Crisis to the likes of the Baader-Meinhof gang. I don't think I understood it all, but I couldn't put it down. I will have to read it again and again and again.
Charcoal: sticks o' willow, fossil twigs complete with knots. Black with a silver-satin sheen - bloom of a grape. Harshly chafing the coarse surface. Tooth, they call it.