19/09/2013 Meet the Author

it is time for Meet The Author with it is time for Meet The Author with

Nick Higham.. Richard Dawkins made his name with The Selfish Gene, the

book that pop rised the notion that genes are the key to evolution,

book that pop rised the notion that is Britain's best known eatist,

Blind Watchmaker and The God authors of book like the

for Wonder: The Making of a Delusion. He has written an

for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist. It is the story of his

life from his life in Africa to his life from his life in Africa to his

mid 30s, we invited him here to our —— authorisist.

Daubing, you became a schoolist Daubing, you became a schoolist and

you come from a family of botanist, people who wrote books about birds

laws of inheritance have been a bug laws of inheritance have been a bug

collector, as a child. But you weren't. You were a bookish boy. I

was, I made something of this in my memoir, perhaps I made too much of

it. I was possibly a bit of a memoir, perhaps I made too much of

disappointment to some members of my family, because I wasn't quite the

outdoor time my ancestors would have liked. You grew up in Africa. It

seems by your account it was a happenry childhood. There were a

couple of occasions when you said you were gullible, when adults told

you lies. They do that, to all children, but you suggest that it

might be better if we were to encourage a sort of healthy

might be better if we were to scepticism, in children. Surely,

that is to miss the point, the innocence of childhood, magic of

chide hood is something we should —— childhood is something we should

value I get kicked round the room for suggesting parents should instil

scepticism in their children. I can see that the magic of childhood is

valuable. There soot imagine nick the scientific world view, I think

that teaching a child to ask questions, to be sceptical, to be

critical, if critical, if you take a trivial

example, father Christmas, I would never tell a child, there is no

Father Christmas, but would say let Father Christmas, but would say let

us think about this, how many Father Christmas, but would say let

and get the child to sort of ask and get the

questions for herself. When you were eight you

because your parents inherited a because your

various boarding school, there are farm and you were

various boarding school, there are photographs of you as the archetypal

schoolboy. One of those was Oundle. A lot of successful people when they

are looking back at their lives say are looking back at their lives say

there was one inspirational teacher who set me on the path. Was Thompson

that teacher? I think he is. I first encountered him, he taught me

biology, I suppose at teenage of about 14, and he, he was

inspirational in the poetic sense. He was waxing poet poetically about

the living world, and that made a the living world, and that made a

big impression on me, then, that was the beginning of my learning about

biology, then at the end, when I was struggling to get into Oxford, he

took me under his wing, and had me took me under his wing, and had me

for, for extra tuition, unpaid I am sure, he was that kind of teacher,

he believed in education in the proper sense, and I think he got me

into Oxford. That was quite a feat, and I think Oxford was the making of

me, so I do owe him an enormous debt me, so I do owe him an enormous debt

of gratitude. You were a successful student, you went into become a

graduate student and you became graduate student and you became an

academic, one of the things you produce in book is a type script of

one of your first sers are of one of your first sers are of

will be selfish. One of your will be selfish. One of your

colleagues has written lovely stuff in the margin.

The interesting thing is, that you set that idea aside, and went on the

spend the next ten years doing very different kind of scientific work

before you came back to this idea, why? That is true, I was immensely

inspired by the ideas of WD Hamilton who wrote a couple of very important

papers in 1964. I adopted the ideas of Hamilton, in the lectures that I

gave, first at Oxford and then California and coined the phrase

selfish gene, I based some on the idea that the gene is the unit of

natural I went on lecturing about it. I

didn't dron it to that extent. years later. One of the.syou mange

to square the behaviour of the young to square the behaviour of the

person? And one obvious example is like a lot of teenager, the age of

that is obviously a very that is obviously a very

considerable contrast to the position you hole now. When did that

change and why? I wouldn't say that is hard to square, because I think

that the kind of bookish interest I had, I was interested in where the

order and complexity of the living world come from, and before I had

understood Darwin evolution it was natural to resort to a sort of

religious explanation, so I think there is a kind of continuity there,

I, I add more puzzled ant the kind of social relations of schoolboys

don't think I was cruel myself, I don't think I was cruel myself, I

didn't do anything to stop the bullying that I saw round me. That,

I find, hard to square with the I find, hard to square with the way

I would be now, I would be horrified and I would hope I would try to go

in and fight about it. So that is one respect in which I think I the

child is not father of the man. You child is not father of the man. You

ask specifically about religion, I lost my religion, a bit later,

probably about the age of 16. But I think there was a certain continuity

question, I just came up with question, I just came up with

different answers. I am curious about what motivates daubing today,

you became the first —— Richard Dawkins today. You became the first

science at Oxford. You did that for science at Oxford. You did that for

I think ten years or I think ten years or more. Now, you

have become associated in the public mind with this militant, almost

aggressive eighties tick position. Are you —— atheist position. I don't

buy the word aggressive S people who call me aggressive have not read my

books, they have often red read what books, they have often red read what

other people have said, what other people have said, what other people

bit of propaganda, the other thing is we have got so used to, the idea

you don't criticise religion at all, is we have got so used to, the idea

you don't criticise religion at all, that even a mild criticism of

religion, a gentle criticism is literally heard, heard as though it

was aggressive, when the language, if you look at the language it is

less aggressive than you wold find in any, I don't know, restaurant

criticism or theatre criticism or book criticism, it is an

exaggeration borne of the, universal presumption you don't Chris sism

religion because it is not done. Thank you very