This week’s diary

00:00 05:13

Richard Dawkins has narrated this article for you to listen to.

Monday and Tuesday I gave over to two long conversations with Arvid Ågren, a Swedish biologist who wants to write a scientific biography of me. As the author of The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution, he knows the subject inside out. Disconcertingly, he seems to have read every word I’ve ever written, and has an almost telepathic familiarity with my entire stock of humorous anecdotes. I wouldn’t put it past him to divine what my mother, who died at 102, would certainly have said: ‘But I don’t understand. Why would anyone want to write a biography of you?’ He’s now going to start looking for a publisher, and she would no doubt want to wish him luck. I’m reminded of a nice publicity campaign for one of Douglas Adams’s books. A cardboard dummy of a little old lady in a hat saying: ‘Hello, I’m Douglas’s mum.