© 2000 • 423 pp., illus., bibliography, index
(Published and /or distributed in conjunction with Granta Books)
Paperback • $21 • ISBN  978-087969594-1

This title also available in: Hardcover

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The first biography of the Nobel-prize winning chemist and peace activist, this book is a winning portrait of an accomplished woman who combined an ambitious career with family responsibilities, often at great cost.

  "…a delight to read (and) very well documented."
      —MAX PERUTZ

  "This book, the 400-page biography of Dorothy Hodgkin, is a superb portrait, in fascinating detail, of the life-history, experiences and personality of this unique individual. The book is so well written, so readable and, in its style, so delightfully in harmony with the life being described, that it is a real treat to read, a fitting tribute to an outstanding and memorable person.

While the context of this book is the development of crystallography, during the initial three decades of its application to organic structures, the focus of the book is simply Dorothy herself—the person—how she started life, how she worked her way into a scientific career, battled against the odds that were stacked against women in those days, quietly established herself amongst the top echelon of structural crystallographers and eventually developed an international reputation and influence. Her crystallography was outstanding (it was Dorothy's first and most passionate love) but her personality is what many of us remember most."
      —International Union of Crystallography Newsletter

  "Hodgkin was wary of would-be biographers, referring to the efforts that she knew of as ‘attempts on my life.’ But she might have approved of Ferry's account, which is warm, balanced, carefully researched, and written in a clear and unobtrusive style. Many readers of this biography may be inspired to follow Thatcher's lead by hanging a portrait of this remarkable scientist and humanitarian near their desks."
      —American Scientist

• Preface

1. ‘It was a rather rackety childhood in a way’
   Cairo and Norfolk, 1910–1928



2. ‘Don’t you understand, I’ve got to know!’
   Somerville and Oxford, 1928–1932



3. ‘My years at Cambridge were rich with new discoveries’
   J.D. Bernal and Cambridge, 1932–1934



4. ‘It’ll serve me absolutely right if the thing is all wrong’
   Oxford, insulin and Thomas, 1934–1937



5. ‘Nobody could be indifferent to the search for the truth about proteins’
   Proteins and pregnancy, 1938–1939



6. ‘All this penicillin racket you know…’
   War and penicillin, 1939–1945



7. ‘The molecule that appears is very beautifully composed’
   America, Russian and Vitamin B₁₂, 1946–1960



8. ‘I seem to have spent much more of my life not solving structures than solving them’
   The Nobel prize and insulin, 1960–1969



9. ‘Born not for herself but for the world’
   China, Africa, India, education and peace, 1959–1988



10. ‘Recently everything has become more hopeful’
    Retirement and after, 1977–1994

• Select Bibliography
• Notes
• Index