At a press conference at the Royal Society this morning, three of the shortlisted authors for this year’s Royal Society Book Prize discussed whether science can be made more accessible through biography before the winner was announced.
How appropriate then, after such intense debate, that a historical biography won.
Richard Holmes’ The Age of Wonder (see my review) won the prize for his profile of the great scientists of the Romantic era. In his tome, the lives of greats such as Joseph Banks, William and Caroline Herschel and Humphry Davy are the means of understanding their science.
The discussion before the announcement stemmed from a question about what makes a good book. Although the authors in the room, former Nature News editor Jo Marchant, Richard Holmes and Ben Goldacre, agreed that stories are key, but they disagreed on whether focusing on the human element works as a way in, or if that is somewhat contemptuous towards science.
Differences aside, biography won the day. More precisely it won the prize. On accepting the award from the President of the Royal Society, Sir Martin Rees, Holmes said: “One of the things I’ve learnt in writing about science is the vital importance of teamwork both in the laboratory and the field. This may require a new kind of biography to be written.”
Holmes is a professor of biographical studies at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, U.K., so it’s unsurprising he believes in this kind of narrative. His interest in science writing and reason for this book stems from his earlier work on Coleridge who was great friends with Humphry Davy.
The author admitted that this book was finished two and a half years after deadline, and that writing can be hard. Great scientific writing, just as great books, says Holmes, must be carefully structured and clear to the reader and in this he admits to being wowed by Davy.
What’s next for Holmes? He tells me he’s writing science plays for radio and next up will focus on Caroline Herschel, “the most determined character I’ve ever written about.”
He’s also struggling to get some of Humphry Davy’s papers and final autobiography published. If Davy’s writing is as good as Holmes says then I have my fingers crossed he succeeds so that both the science and the biography will be more accessible to us all.