Matt Ridley can鈥檛 wait to finish one book before starting another. So he
usually has three on the go at once, 鈥渆ach in a different part of the house鈥,
says the biologist and author of Genome. His current crop consists of
Stephen Ambrose鈥檚 Undaunted Courage (Touchstone, 1997), about Lewis and
Clark鈥檚 journey across the American West in the early 19th century; Annie鈥檚
Box by Randal Keynes (reviewed 28 April), the story of Charles Darwin鈥檚
first daughter told by his great great grandson; and Tim Flannery鈥檚 The
Eternal Frontier,
(reviewed 16 June, p 50), which Ridley calls 鈥渁 truly
brilliant book鈥. And dispelling suggestions that he sticks to biographies and
histories, Ridley has recently been dipping into Homer鈥檚 Odyssey
(Penguin, 2000).
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