Superb, neatly fulfilling its goal of introducing science without being boring or didactic. This is a genuinely mind-expanding and very funny book.

Entertaining, instructive and illuminating

A concise, gleaming portrait

Powerful... [his] brevity makes for a bold picture

Read it for the personal nuggets... But above all, it's worth reading for its message of hope

Charmingly modest... it's appropriate that this most extraordinary of men should remain enigmatic

Stephen Hawking has had to overcome extraordinary obstacles in his life... Where he is most admirable is in his attitude to his disability - on which he is stoicism personified

His clarity, wit and determination are evident, his understatement and good humour moving... We will never really know Hawking. But what we do know - that he achieved extraordinary success against extraordinary adversity - is quite enough.

The book coherently appeals to readers who want a snapshot into Hawking's inner life and readers eager to trace the evolution of his thinking.

Requires total immersion followed by quiet contemplation… Not only a history of medicine. It is a history dedicated to men […] for whom the war-afflicted body was a life sentence

He found his best form as a storyteller and interpreter of the dynamic nature of our native woodlands.

An informative history of the English relationship with trees

Elegant and heartfelt… Part eco-memoir, part monograph, wholly engrossing

Fantastic

A truly compelling book, savage and sparkling by turns

Alan Root’s overflowing life as a dedicated, adventurous film-maker and naturalist is almost the story of wild East Africa itself in those glorious and tragic years surrounding the advent of political independence…a fresh, honest, often moving (and humorous) account, a terrific contribution to the literature

Required reading for anyone who wants to experience the joys and sorrows of conservation in today's Africa

Root’s enthralling memoir…is the best true-life adventure story to come out of Africa for years

His is a funny, harrowing, beautifully written love letter to Africa

In this captivating memoir [Root] documents his brushes in the bush and his passion for wildlife

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Root has written the most extraordinary love letter to Africa – packed with drama and knowledge, tragedy and hope... A completely gripping and important study of this complex and disappearing natural environment

His is an extraordinary story laced with tragedy

[Root's] life story, vividly related here, is crammed with incident and adventure. Curious, creative and fearless, he has diced with death on numerous occasions and been mauled several times in his efforts to capture the daily lives of everything from silver-back gorillas to leopards in the wild on film. A gripping account of a life well lived