Living Dolls looks at humanity's age-old obsession with moving dolls and speaking robots, intelligent machines and bionic men. It tells the remarkable story of men who wanted to play God - of the inventors and magicians who laboured for centuries to simulate life mechanically. 'A meticulous account of the search for mechanical life . . . The best kind of popular history-of-ideas book, in the same league as Longitude.' Jonathan Coe, Sunday Times 'A treasure trove of marvels and information. Wittily and cogently written, this unusual cultural analysis provides us with unsettling insights into our historic fascination with human simulacra through the centuries.' Joyce Carol Oates