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P.D. Smith

Goodreads Author

Born

Greater London, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.peterdsmith.com/

Twitter

PD_Smith

Genre

History, Science, Biographies & Memoirs

Influences

Leo Szilard, Albert Einstein, H.G. Wells, J.G. Ballard, Robert Musil, ...more

Member Since

April 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/pd_smith

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P.D. Smith is an independent researcher and writer. His most recent book is City: A Guidebook to the Urban Age, published by Bloomsbury in 2012. His previous book, Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon (2007, Penguin), was described by the Daily Telegraph as "chilling" and "irresistible".

He regularly reviews non-fiction books for the Guardian, and has also written for the Independent, the Financial Times and the Times Literary Supplement. His interests include genre fiction, cities, the life of Einstein and the way science is explored in literature.

...more

79 posts
P.D. Smith's Blog

The 100 best novels of all time

I very much enjoyed coming up with my top ten of the best novels published in English for today’s Guardian. Here they are, with the final top-100 ranking in brackets:

1
The Man Without Qualities (#67)
by Robert Musil
“It perfectly captures the period before the first world war in central Europe and anticipates the intellectual uncertainty of the modern era.”
2
Berlin Alexanderplatz
by Alfred Döblin
“It is

Combine Editions
P.D. Smith’s books

Average rating: 3.77 · 502 ratings · 73 reviews · 6 distinct works • Similar authors

	City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age 3.62 avg rating — 299 ratings — published 2011 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon 4.16 avg rating — 122 ratings — published 2007 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Arc 1.2: Post human conditions by Sumit Paul-Choudhury (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Simon Ings (Editor), Nick Harkaway (Goodreads Author) 3.58 avg rating — 52 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Einstein by Peter D. Smith, P.D. Smith (Goodreads Author) 3.98 avg rating — 41 ratings — published 2003 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Doctor Who: Nuclear Time by Smith, Oli hardcover Edition (2010) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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P.D.’s Recent Updates

P.D. Smith wrote a new blog post The 100 best novels of all time I very much enjoyed coming up with my top ten of the best novels published in English for today’s Guardian. Here they are, with the final top-100 rank Read more of this blog post »
May 17, 2026 01:17AM · like