Hugely readable ... the story of how the prize was won is astonishing

Reads like a thriller - and reveals many secrets... one of the great entrepreneurial stories of our time

If you admire those who aim really high, How to Make a Spaceship belongs on your bookshelf... a rousing anthem to the urge to explore.

Includes enough death-defying stunts, madcap schemes, wild coincidences, and rousing redemptive moments to fuel a dozen Hollywood blockbusters.

Impressively ambitious... When the history of 21st-century space efforts is written decades or centuries from now, this book will be a valuable contemporary record of what it was like when humanity was trying to break out of its home.

This incredible book is The Right Stuff with afterburners. Intrepid designers and innovators risk their reputations. Gutsy test pilots risk their lives. Explorers push new boundaries of what so many once thought was impossible. All brought together by a real gravity-defying force, Peter Diamandis. How to Make a Spaceship is required reading for anyone who cares about space, aviation, and the future of flight.

The story of Peter Diamandis is a reminder of the power of passion and persistence. How to Make a Spaceship chronicles the amazing journey of a key figure in the private race to space—a dreamer who, in the face of multiple setbacks and naysayers, simply refused to let go of his dream.

I don’t know how Julian Guthrie does it. In her last book, she didn’t race in the America’s Cup, yet readers felt they had. And now in How to Make a Spaceship, although she wasn’t strapped into the cockpit of the first civilian spacecraft to rocket into outer space, her vivid writing places readers right there. With the flair of a novelist and the precision of a fine journalist, she takes readers on a journey not just into space but into the hearts and minds of the adventurers who dare go where NASA no longer does. Her tale will quicken your pulse.

Too few kids and young adults understand the power of science and technology. We need role models demonstrating the power of passion and perseverance to make dreams come true. How to Make a Spaceship is filled with innovators and doers. The story will inspire makers of all ages.

This outstanding and compelling book shows the power of one man’s vision, and the ability of small teams to accomplish extraordinary things. How to Make a Spaceship will inspire and guide you to take on your own Moonshot.

Fascinating and funny. I learned something on every page.

Hannah Fry is one of the best explainers on the planet. In Hello World she examines the ups and downs of living with algorithms everywhere, online and off, in our homes and workplaces, hospitals and supermarkets. She takes a serious subject and leavens it delightfully with her clear writing and captivating stories, and her trademark sense of humour and fun.

Books of the Year

Books of the Year
This short, sharp book on the power and dangers of algorithms offers one of the clearest explanations of a complex subject

Books of the Year
A perky, brief introduction to big data and algorithmic crunching…enjoyably sceptical

Books of the Year
Hannah Fry’s is the most readable, lively and sensible account, neither catastrophising nor pumped with boosterism

Hello World is an illuminating book on the ethical issues around data. Mathematician and presenter Hannah Fry leads us through the not-too-distant worlds of AI politics, healthcare and culture, probing the complex roles of data and algorithms through a range of eye-opening examples. ‘AI’ is a much-used but oft-misunderstood term, and here Fry lays out its impact with ease - 'Best Books of 2018'

Top science writing

She is doing to maths what Brian Cox has done for physics

Hannah Fry is quickly becoming the David Attenborough of maths.

Dazzling... There is nothing about Gene that is less than nuanced.

A magnificent synthesis of the science of life, and forces all to confront the essence of that science as well as the ethical and philosophical challenges to our conception of what constitutes being human

Wise and lucid...excellent

A tourist guide to the new Africa, the human genome… Mukherjee gives an exhaustive account of the development of the modern science of inheritance… Mukherjee does a good job of cutting away the web of ambiguity and complexity’

Written with the rollicking enthusiasm of sports journalism… Mukherjee has an ear for his subject’s rhetorical brilliance.

Meticulous… Carefully constructed, deliberate prose.

Makes a compelling case that our ability to harness the medical benefits of genomic science while avoiding its hazards promises to be among the defining challenges of the 21st century.

Mukherjee has done readers an admirable service, by turning one of the most important scientific sagas – arguably the most important – in history into a tale that is too good not to know

Rather wonderful book… All-encompassing and eye-opening and moving and amusing, at times, and endlessly fascinating and truly brilliant… As long as intelligent, empathetic, thoughtful people like himself are to the forefront, it should turn out alright.

An accessible and beautifully written overview of the complex field of genetics by the Indian-born doctor. It’s compellingly personal and provocative, too.

Mukherjee views his subject panoptically from a great and clarifying height, yet also intimately.

Dr Mukherjee uses personal experience to particularly good effect… He writes tenderly.

[A] Magisterial historical survey.

Mukherjee has a gift for making gripping, vivid narrative out of the cataclysmic but largely invisible drama of molecular biology.

Compelling

Fascinating, complex and accessible.

Intimate, insider’s account of the role that genetics.

A tourist guide to the twenty-first century’s uncharted continent, the human genome... Gives a full and lively account of the development of the subject... He has talked to many of the main players and gives deep insights into their moments of discovery... Mukherjee does a good job of cutting away the web of ambiguity and complexity that scientists have woven.

A daring and highly personal voyage into the future of genetic research

The Gene’s dominant traits are historical breadth, clinical compassion, and Mukherjee’s characteristic graceful style… Mukherjee writes eloquently

A fine read, with many fine stories.

[It is] accessible and beautifully written… It’s compellingly personal and provocative, too.

The Gene is a staggeringly impressive piece of writing… [It] takes us on a fascinating journey through the world of genetics… Written with a clarity that brings the most complex concepts to life… An accessible, gripping and thought-provoking read. In short, this book is a masterpiece and you should read it.

An essential read.

Inspiring and tremendously evocative

A fascinating read

You may think this book is not for you. Thing again… My only caution would be not to recommend it to too many people… So whether you’re a teacher or parent attempting to inspire…or you simply want an erudite anecdote, this book is for you. It’s a dazzling example of scientific story-telling and definitely my book of the year.

An epic 150-year, 500-plus page journey of genetic discovery… [An] excellent and authoritative account.

This is a brilliantly readable celebration of the science and scientists who have transformed out understanding of what it means to be human.

The Gene is a truly impressive achievement… Mukherjee has created a masterwork of the history of the gene and its study. In this popular science book, scientist and non-scientist readers alike will feel they have a true understanding of the history, biology and ethics of genetics.

He deftly lays out a history of the gene… One of the great science books of the decade with an engagingly enthusiastic personality at its heart.

[A]superbly written tale.

Mukherjee writes with clarity and passion… This should prove a fascinating read for anyone interested in understanding how far the study of the gene has taken us, particularly with respect to medicine, and where the future may lie.

Ambitious and honest, The Gene sheds light on both our past and future.

Mukherjee’s text brims with potential… Surely The Gene has to be the new bible for a new generation of aspiring biologists, biochemists and, frankly, thinking people? So whether you’re a teacher or parent attempting to inspire a reluctant teen to get excited about science, or you simply want an erudite anecdote, this book is for you. It’s a dazzling example of scientific story-telling, and definitely my book of the year.

If you want a good overview of the history of the gene, you can’t go wrong starting here.

A provocative and engaging [read].

Mukherjee’s prose tends to be lavish, but this befits the weighty topic, and his explanatory style is clear yet enveloping… Compelling scientific and medical storytelling… A spectacular effort from an author I hopes has plenty more tales to tell.

An essential guide to biology.

A brilliant, chunky, study of genes.

This book captures the progression from that intuitive sense of genetics to its birth as a veritable science and, for better or for worse, its evolution into a powerful tool… The book ends not with a conclusion, but with a feeling of anticipation… In many ways, The Gene is a call for caution and for a thoughtful consideration of the possibilities that progress may bring… When genes become tools, what will those tools be used for? As we try to answer that question, Mukherjee’s book asks us to carefully look back before we continue to move forward

A comprehensive – and gripping – history of the gene