The poetry of twilight and the awe-inspiring magic of eclipses: Books in brief

The Secret World of Twilight Sally Coulthard Apollo (2026) “Twilight is the blazing cauldron that separates day from night,” writes Sally Coulthard in her charming natural history of dawn and dusk, when skies radiate colours, landscapes change their mood and creatures come out of the shadows. As a prolific nature writer living in a farmhouse in rural England with her gardener husband and flocks of animals, Coulthard is well qualified. Her vivid examples include a Yorkshire slang term: ‘sparrow’s fart’, meaning the near-silent moment before dawn when you might catch the faint “parps” of a waking bird. The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals Larry Carbone Univ. California Press (2026) Having spent four decades working with animals that are often hidden in laboratories, veterinary surgeon Larry Carbone knows that “every contact with animals is an ethical encounter”. The book examines species ranging from pythons and fleas to dogs and gorillas, and notes that the ethical complexity of experimentation is profound. How do we recognize animal pain? Which human medical conditions justify animal testing? Which scientific disciplines truly benefit from it? Surprisingly, no animal experiment is illustrated in the book. The Dreaded Pox Olivia Weisser Cambridge Univ. Press (2026) Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century London has been dubbed a “City of Sin”, notes historian Olivia Weisser, although she prefers a “Republic of Venus”. …