Richard Dawkins is perhaps one of the foremost contributors to the expansion of scientific knowledge and ideas in our time, making his memoir greatly anticipated. An Appetite for Wonder details Dawkins’ life from his birth in the British colony of Kenya to the publication of his first work, The Selfish Gene. In between we follow the journey of a young Dawkins, from his upbringing in Nyasaland and British boarding schools to the prestigious Balliol College at Oxford University.

Rich with anecdotes from childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, this memoir is fast moving and often thorough. Balancing the cultivation of Dawkins’ scientific intellect by those who challenged and inspired him with the more trivial tales of his early life, the result is a fascinating insight into the factors that contributed to both Dawkins’ character and his science.

For the benefit of those who are not biologists themselves, Dawkins describes his research into animal behaviour without delving too deeply into complex analysis and scientific jargon. Instead, he offers a comprehensive and often conversational recollection of his work.

I was disappointed that Dawkins chose to close this memoir having only reached the publication of his first major work. While he discusses at length the inspirations and revelations that led to The Selfish Gene, anyone who is eager to learn what encouraged other works, such as The God Delusion, will have to settle for the odd allusion scattered throughout this book, at least until volume two of Dawkins’ memoir is released.

An Appetite for Wonder is eminently readable, insightful and at times surprisingly candid. It is the product of a unique imagination, one that has given so much to the science of evolutionary biology – much like Dawkins’ scientific hero, Charles Darwin, before him.

Dexter Gillman is a freelance reviewer.