In An Appetite for Wonder Richard Dawkins brought us his engaging memoir of his first 35 years. In Brief Candle in the Dark he continues his autobiography, following the threads that have run through the second half of his life so far.

He paints a vivid picture, coloured with wit, anecdote and digression, of the twenty-five postgraduate years he spent teaching at Oxford. He pays affectionate tribute to past colleagues and students, recalling with characteristic wry humour the idiosyncrasies of an establishment steeped in tradition and ritual. He invites us to share the life of a travelling scientist, from fieldwork on the Panama Canal to conferences in the company of some of the most prominent - and most eccentric - of the world's scientific luminaries.

Most important of all, for the first time he reviews with fresh and stimulating insights the evolving narrative of his ideas about science over the course of his highly distinguished career as thinker, teacher and writer.