Can the quality of a book be assessed by the time it took to be written? Stephen Mumford, Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, has attracted rave reviews for his Metaphysics: a Very Short Introduction, which came out last September. It is in the prestigious Oxford VSI series, the best-selling introductory series on academic subjects. Amid 5-star Amazon reviews, one called it ‘a truly great book’, saying that only two books had ever really helped the reader understand philosophy: this one and Bertrand Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy.

“That is the highest accolade”, says Professor Mumford. “Not only is Russell one of my favourite philosophers, his book is almost universally regarded as the all-time greatest introduction to the subject.”

What is so remarkable about Professor Mumford’s book on metaphysics, however, is the fact that it was written in just 10 days, between 25 October and 5 November 2011, with the Saturday taken off as a rest day.

”I’ve written a number of books”, he says, “but none so quickly.” He continued: “Oxford’s VSIs have to be short. I had decided on 10 chapters and had them planned out at the proposal stage. So I decided to write one chapter each day of roughly 3,500 words.

“I have an approach where I sharply separate the thinking from the writing. I believe the writing benefits from being done in a concentrated burst.”

“At first I felt slightly embarrassed that the book was written so quickly. Some might infer it’s a bad book that I didn’t care about. So I am very happy at the reception. And the truth is that there was really 20 years of teaching and research in metaphysics that preceded it, so the book didn’t just come from nothing.” Whether something can truly come from nothing is one of the questions addressed in the book, as is what is a table, what is possible and what is time.”

Inspired by the success, Stephen has co-authored another in the VSI series, this one on Causation, due out later this year.