Review: 'The Atmosphere of Heaven' by Mike Jay

Originally published in 2009 'The Atmosphere of Heaven: The Unnatural Experiments of Dr Beddoes and his Sons of Genius' is an outstanding work of historical non-fiction by Mike Jay. His previously published drug-related works include such titles as 'Blue Tide' and 'Emperors of Dreams' and this offering is an examination of, arguably, the era in which modern drug writing first flowered. The book is full of fascinating research, which manages to thread together science, politics and philosophy in an extremely engaging and well written narrative.

The Atmosphere of Heaven tells the story of physician and scientist Thomas Beddoes (1760-1808) and his circle of colleagues, as they attempted to revolutionise medicine through experimental chemistry, during the turn of the nineteenth century. The book is set against a backdrop of social tension; it opens with a mob rampaging through Birmingham on its way to setting fire to the home of theologian, natural philosopher and political theorist Joseph Priestley (1733-1804). Riots pepper the book and as war with neighbouring France drags Britain's poor to the brink of starvation, the nation is split between the royalists, like the Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806), who wage war with the newly formed French Republic and those progressives who see the war as a battle against equality and the rule of the people. Science, Jay so aptly illustrates throughout the text, was not immune from the political discourse of the day, and Thomas Beddoes fully embodied both.