New: From 9 to 5

Anne Wyeth, the renowned historian, has written the new, definitive biography of Solomon Isarebe – the person many believe did more than any other to bring about the cooler climate we enjoy today.

The title, From 9 to 5, refers to Isarebe’s famous prediction that the global population would fall from 9 billion to 5 billion between 2050 and 2150. This prediction, despite the Migration Wars in Europe and South-East Asia in the 2090s, has proved eerily accurate, as have his prophecies for economic change, land-use and climate change.

The book examines his work, highlighting his moments of undisputed genius, but also the times his faith in his own brilliance let him down. Wyeth shows us his apparent fortune tellers’ ability to look in to the future was as often down to luck as to judgement.

Wyeth also looks in to the private life and inner world of this most difficult and complex of men, from his abusive childhood to his conviction for murder. Wyeth was given unparalleled access to the Isarebe family archives, including notebooks, personal communications, objects, photographs and official documents.

Wyeth tells the story of this most incredible of men with both an affectionate sensitivity and the cold eye of the academic. She provides us with the time-scape of his life: the tortured childhood with a violent and sexually abusive mother; an escape across Europe aged 9; the precocious development of a child prodigy; the emergence of a maverick academic and radical thinker; the difficult path to becoming the Nobel-prize winning author of the best-selling book of the 21^st century; and then his imprisonment before his ultimate redemption. She also tells us of the character traits that remained with him throughout his life: the bully, who forced world leaders in to accepting falling fertility rates; the loner, who remained chaste until late middle age; and the depressive, who believed his mother’s wraith was waiting to punish him around every corner.

The publication of the book coincides with the exhibition From 9 to 5, which is taking place in the Arem Johns Gallery in London, England, from 6^th June to 22^nd November 2150.