Brilliantly penetrating...utterly riveting

Browne knows how to spellbind the reader... The definitive Darwin biography

An authoritative and highly readable biography which uncovers the complex process of scientific discovery

It is wonderful and marvellous, even magisterial

Splendid. Her qualifications as a trained biologist, historian of science and skilled editor of the correspondence out her in an ideal position... A wonderful read

The very book I have been looking for most of my life... Bryson wears his knowledge with aplomb and a lot of very good jokes

Impressive in his terse concreteness ... Hugely readable and never obfuscating

This most enjoyable of books ... A travelogue of science, with a witty, engaging, and well-informed guide

Bill Bryson has an unmatched gift for explaining the most difficult subjects in the clearest possible way. If, like me, your brain tends to go numb when faced with terms like plate tectonics, genome, relativity theory, big bang and particle physics, then it is more than likely that A Short History of Nearly Everything is the cure you have always been looking for...It deserves to sell as many copies as there are protons contained in the full stop that ends this review (at least 500,000,000,000)

Lucid, thoughtful and, above all, entertaining

I don't doubt that with A Short History of Nearly Everything he is plugging a gap in the market. As a result, several hundred thousand people will end up knowing a little bit more about the universe than they did before

An engaging and, at times, moving read.

A terrific book . . . once you start it you'll be hooked.

Brimming with excitement . . . This is a rewarding tale of courage, determination, and the possibilities of science.

Dawkins emerges like a prize-fighter, knocking out of the ring all objections

Most importantly his writing radiates an intense sense of fascination. He is a great explainer, taking complex biological processes and making them accessible

If you want to understand evolution, I doubt there are many better at explaining it to laymen than Dawkins... A writer who is red in tooth and pen, his opponents don't stand a chance

An accessible, colourful and beautifully detailed look at many scientific wonders - whether it's the great variety of dogs or the sex life of orchids - and a great primer for those coming fresh to the subject

Richard Dawkin's new book... gives the fact-rejecters their just deserts

The book is full of evidence, some familiar and some new. Its case is presented in a manner succinct, clear and sometimes vivid

No other book currently available approaches Dawkin's comprehensive yet accessible treatment of the extraordinarily diverse and massive body of data that drives ineluctably to the same conclusion

The Greatest Show on Earth is a lucid, thorough and often exciting survey of evolution and takes in rats' teeth, dogs, bacteria, the so-called missing link, crustaceans, giraffe anatomy, hummingbirds, chimpanzees, enzymes - you name it. It is informed in nearly every paragraph by Mr. Dawkins's irrepressible enthusiasm

The Greatest Show on Earth... is essential reading. I would currently rate it... as the best overall book on the evidence for Evolution

This is a magnificent book of wonderstanding: Richard Dawkins combines an artist's wonder at the virtuosity of nature with a scientist's understanding of how it comes to be