About the author(s)

Matt Ridley's books—including The Red Queen, Genome, The Rational Optimist, The Evolution of Everything, How Innovation Works, and most recently, Viral: the Search for the Origin of Covid-19 (with Alina Chan)—have sold over a million copies, been translated into 31 languages, and won several awards. He sat in the House of Lords from 2013 and 2021, and was founding chairman of the International Centre for Life in Newcastle. He created the “Mind and Matter” column in the Wall Street Journal in 2010, and was a columnist for the Times. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He lives in Northumberland.

Reviews

Praise for Eminent Lives Series: FRANCIS CRICK and CHARLES DARWIN - Abilene Reporter-News

“The reader gets a strong sense of how these men lived, what they achieved and how they achieved it.” - San Francisco Chronicle

“Thoughtful. . .aptly conjures a forgotten scientific landscape. . .” - New York Times Book Review

“A fitting tribute to a…canonical figure in modern science” - Publishers Weekly

“A nimble biography.” - Los Angeles Times Book Review

“A considerably more complete and colorful portrait of Crick than has existed before.” - Nicholas Wade, New York Times

“Ridley has captured the wonder of an unparalleled scientific mind at work and at play.” - Nicholas Wade, New York Times

“Lucid and riveting . . . Completely captivating, a lively and deeply intriguing account of one of biology’s most imaginative scientists.” - Kay Redfield Jamison

“Ridley captures Crick’s audacity, brilliance and, not least, eloquence…An excellent first biography” - Brenda Maddox, Sunday Times (London)

“Enjoyable…Ridley does an excellent job of escorting readers on [an] intellectual roller coaster ride.” - BioScience

“This is a wonderful book--deeply substantive, lucid, trenchant, and witty. It tells the biggest story in modern biology.” - David Quammen

“Ridley is a skilled science writer and able to lighten the heaviest discussions with clever analogies.” - New York Times Book Review

“Matt Ridley’s book reads beautifully, the science flowing along with the life, to form a unity.” - Aaron Klug

“Matt Ridley’s Francis Crick perceptively and warmly recounts the extraordinary life of the 20th century’s most important biologist.” - James D. Watson

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