It Takes Two

‘Sometimes, 1+1 = changing the world. Cathy Newman’s witty, warm history on the power of determined couples will make you look at your relationship and wonder, “Could we be doing more this weekend than just going to IKEA?”’ CAITLIN MORAN

Throughout history, collaboration has fuelled greatness. From rivalspressuringeach otherforwardsto friends combining their talents, it’s clear: often two heads are better than one.

In It Takes Two, Cathy Newman rewrites the history books toexpose thisstrange power of two –the reason Holmes and Watson need to come as a pair, andApplecould not have been started bySteve Jobsalone. Bringing together an extraordinary range of stories from around the world, Newman shows how double acts have relied on each other, how minds have married tousher in miraculous discoveries,and how thosewe think of as lone geniusesoften did not work solo.

How did William and Ellen Craftwork together to pull off aperilouscross-countryescapefromslavery? How did the queerartistsMarcel MooreandClaudeCahun becomeicons of the surrealist movement, then heroines of the resistance during WW2? Howdotoday’s most powerful couples – fromBeyoncéand Jay-Z toBill and Melinda Gates– negotiate coupledom and individual achievement in the spotlight?

Vibrant, feministandunexpected, this brilliant history shows the value of friction, obsession, differenceand trust when it comes to progress– and retrieves the work ofmanywho have been forgotten, asking why certain collaborators are so often left out of thenarrative.