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YES, this is the James Watson of double helix fame who, with fellow Nobel prizewinner Francis Crick, revealed the structure of DNA to the world.

In The Writing Life of James D. Watson, Errol Friedberg reproduces many of the fascinating original documents about the skirmishes that occurred along the way to Watson writing his bestseller The Double Helix. An unusual combination of autobiography and scientific report, it is racy and frank about the personalities involved in DNA research. Throughout, there are pithy remarks and assessments printed in bold type to keep readers on the rails.

As Friedberg recounts, Watson’s The Double Helix caused controversy even before it was published – not least because it overturned the convention that science reports have to be almost uniformly dull and shorn of active verbs.

Watson himself considers writing to be his greatest achievement, and there is much more in this valuable book than consideration of The Double Helix, which is just one piece of evidence of Watson’s determination to “tell it like it is”.