Gareth Williams is Emeritus Professor and former Dean of Medicine at the University of Bristol. His previous books for general readers are ANGEL OF DEATH: THE STORY OF SMALLPOX (shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize of 2010), PARALYSED WITH FEAR: THE STORY OF POLIO and A MONSTROUS COMMOTION. He is a past president of the Anglo-French Medical Society and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Angers.
...a riveting good read...Not only did I find it hard to put down, I'm now moved to seek out other science histories by Williams. Highly recommended. * CHEMISTRY WORLD * This is a FANTASTIC book -- Professor Alice Roberts via Twitter (@theAliceRoberts) Gareth Williams, the former dean of medicine at Bristol University, has woven a truly superb narrative from short biographies of all the scientists who contributed to, and in some cases just missed out on, the epochal discovery that the secret of life is a digital linear code written on DNA ... By choosing to fill in the gaps in conventional accounts, Williams has done a good job of telling the whole story of science's greatest discovery. He has done it with fluency and a real feel for narrative -- Matt Ridley * The Times *