An Appetite for Wonder Read online

  Again, same for me, despite the ludicrously ill-founded reputation for mathematical ability that I briefly enjoyed – or endured – in Bevington Road days. John Maynard Smith, as a mathematical biologist himself, engagingly expressed wonderment at how it is possible to ‘think in prose’. He said it in the London Review of Books in 1982, at the end of a joint review of The Selfish Gene and its sequel (aimed at professional biologists), The Extended Phenotype:

  I have left till last what is to me the strangest feature of both books, because I suspect it will not seem strange to many others. It is that neither book contains a single line of mathematics, and yet I have no difficulty in following them, and as far as I can detect they contain no logical errors. Further, Dawkins has not first worked out his ideas mathematically and then converted them into prose: he apparently thinks in prose, although it may be significant that, while writing The Selfish Gene, he was recovering from a severe addiction to computer programming, an activity which obliges one to think clearly and to say exactly what one means. It is unfortunate that most people who write about the relation between genetics and evolution without the intellectual prop of mathematics are either incomprehensible or wrong, and not infrequently both. Dawkins is a happy exception to this rule.

  Back to Darwin’s autobiographical soliloquy:

  So poor in one sense is my memory, that I have never been able to remember for more than a few days a single date or a line of poetry.

  That might well have been really true of Darwin, and it doesn’t seem to have held him back. My ability to remember poetry word for word hasn’t helped my science much, although it has enriched my life and I would not ever wish to lose it. Perhaps, too, a feeling for poetic cadence has some influence on writing style.

  My habits are methodical, and this has been of not a little use for my particular line of work. Lastly, I have had ample leisure from not having to earn my own bread. Even ill-health, though it has annihilated several years of my life, has saved me from the distractions of society or amusement.

  My habits are anything but methodical, and that – not ill health in my case – has surely annihilated what might have added up to years of more productive life. The same accusation could be levelled at the distractions of society or amusement (and playing with computers in my case), but life is for living as well as producing. I have had to earn my own bread. But – while happy to ignore the attacks I have (yes, really) received for being white, male and adequately educated – I cannot deny a measure of unearned privilege when I compare my childhood, boyhood and youth to others less fortunate. I do not apologize for that privilege any more than a man should apologize for his genes or his face, but I am very conscious of it. And I am grateful to my parents for giving me what will strike some as a favoured childhood. Others might consider it less than a blessing to have been sent away to the spartan regime of boarding school aged seven, but even there I have reason to be grateful to my parents, for whom this style of education was a great expense, necessitating sacrifices from them.

  Darwin had earlier let his modesty guard drop a little when he considered his – by any standards formidable – powers of reasoning:

  Some of my critics have said, ‘Oh, he is a good observer, but has no power of reasoning.’ I do not think this can be true, for the Origin of Species is one long argument from the beginning to the end, and it has convinced not a few able men. No one could have written it without having some power of reasoning.

  Mr Darwin (never Sir Charles, and what an amazing indictment of our honours system that is), that last sentence should win a prize for world-class understatement. Mr Darwin, you are one of the great reasoners and one of the great persuaders of all time.

  I am not a good observer. I’m not proud of it and I try eagerly, but I am not the naturalist my father and his father would have wished. I lack patience and have no great knowledge of any particular animal or – despite one privilege of my upbringing – plant group. I know the songs of only half a dozen common British songbirds, and can recognize only about the same number of constellations in our night sky or families of our wildflowers. I am much better at the phyla, classes and orders of the animal kingdom – and so I should be, having studied zoology at Oxford: for no other university placed such an emphasis on that classical approach to the subject.

  The evidence suggests that I am a reasonably effective persuader. Needless to say, the subjects about which I persuade are small beer compared to Darwin’s – except in the sense that, amazingly, the job of persuading people of Darwin’s own truth is still not over, and I am one of the labourers in Darwin’s vineyard today. But that story belongs in the second half of my life, during which the majority of my books were written: it belongs in the companion volume that should follow in two years’ time – if I am not carried off by the unpredictable equivalent of a sneeze.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  For advice, help and support of various kinds, I would like to thank Lalla Ward Dawkins, Jean Dawkins, Sarah and Michael Kettlewell, Marian Stamp Dawkins, John Smythies, Sally Gaminara, Hilary Redmon, Sheila Lee, Gillian Somerscales, Nicholas Jones, John Brockman, David Glynn, Ross and Christine Hildebrand, Bill Newton Dunn, R. Elisabeth Cornwell, Richard Rumary, Alan Heesom, Ian McAlpine, Michael Ottway, Howard Stringer, Anna Sander, Paula Kirby, Stephen Freer, Bart Voorzanger, Jennifer Jacquet, Lucy Wainwright, Bjorn Melander, Christer Sturmark, Greg Stikeleather, Ann-Kathrin Ehlers, Jan and Richard Gendall, Rand Russell.

  TEXT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders, but any who have been overlooked are invited to get in touch with the publishers.

  ‘To the Balliol Men Still in Africa’ by Hilaire Belloc reprinted by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com) on behalf of the Estate of Hilaire Belloc.

  Extract from Iris Murdoch: A Life by Peter J. Conradi © Peter J. Conradi, 2001, reprinted by permission of A. M. Heath & Co Ltd and W. W. Norton.

  Extract from The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell by Bertrand Russell © 2009 The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis Books UK and The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation Ltd.

  Lyrics from ‘A Song of Reproduction’ reprinted by permission of the Estates of Michael Flanders & Donald Swann 2013. Any use of Flanders & Swann material, large or small, should be referred to the Estates at [email protected].

  Extract from ‘Summoned by Bells’ from Collected Poems by John Betjeman © 1955, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1968, 1970, 1979, 1981, 1982, 2001 reprinted by permission of John Murray (Publishers) and The Estate of John Betjeman.

  Extract from ‘A Hike on the Downs’ from Collected Poems by John Betjeman © 1955, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1968, 1970, 1979, 1981, 1982, 2001 reprinted by permission of John Murray (Publishers) and The Estate of John Betjeman.

  Extract from The Loom of Years by Alfred Noyes © 1902 reprinted by permission of The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Alfred Noyes.

  ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ by Carl Lee Perkins © 1955, 1956 Hi Lo Music, Inc. © Renewed 1983, 1984 Carl Perkins Music, Inc. Administered by Wren Music Co., Division of MPL Music Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission of Music Sales Limited.

  Extract from The Silent Traveller in Oxford by Chiang Yee © 1944 Signal Books Ltd.

  Extract from W. D. Hamilton, ‘The Play by Nature’, Science 196: 757 (1977), reprinted with permission from AAAS.

  Extract from Leda by Aldous Huxley. Copyright © 1929 by Aldous Huxley. Reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc., on behalf of the Aldous and Laura Huxley Trust. All rights reserved.

  Extract from ‘Genes and Memes’ by John Maynard Smith, first published in London Review of Books, 4 February 1982.

  Extract from ‘Selective Neurone Death as a Possible Memory Mechanism’ by Richard Dawkins, first published in Nature (Nature Publishing Group), 8 January 1971.

  Extract from Richard D
awkins’ Foreword to John Maynard Smith, The Theory of Evolution (Cambridge University Press, 1993).

  Extracts from Preface, chapter 1 and chapter 13 of The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976). Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.

  PICTURE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  All photos come from the Dawkins family collection (thanks to Sarah Kettlewell) except where otherwise acknowledged. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, but any who have been overlooked are invited to get in touch with the publishers.

  Images in the text

  From “Learning the Trade”: Cerura vinula: photo courtesy N. Tinbergen.

  Illustration sections

  Section one

  St Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton: photo courtesy Nicholas Kettlewell.

  Clinton Edward Dawkins (1880), Clinton George Evelyn Dawkins (1902), Clinton John Dawkins (1934), Arthur Francis ‘Bill’ Dawkins (1935/6): photos courtesy Balliol College, Oxford.

  Section two

  Emperor Swallowtail (Papilio ophidicephalus): © Ingo Arendt/Minden Pictures/Corbis.

  Section three

  The Great Hall, Oundle School, Northamptonshire: © Graham Oliver/ Alamy; Ioan Thomas, 1968: Oundle School Archive.

  Niko Tinbergen painting hens’ eggs to resemble gulls’ eggs, c.1964: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; Mike Cullen, 1979: Monash University Archives, photo Hervé Alleaume; the Surrey Puma hunt: photo courtesy Virginia Hopkinson; People’s Park demonstrators and the National Guard, Berkeley, 19 May 1969: © Bettmann/Corbis; punting in Oxford: photo courtesy Lary Shaffer; Peter Medawar at University College, 26 November 1960: Getty Images.

  RD and Ted Burk, November 1976: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; Danny Lehrman and Niko Tinbergen: photo courtesy Professor Colin Beer; Niko Tinbergen filming: courtesy Lary Shaffer.

  William D. Hamilton and Robert Trivers, Harvard, 1978: photo courtesy Sarah B. Hrdy; Michael Rodgers: photo courtesy Nigel Parry; RD and George C. Williams: photo by Rae Silver courtesy John Brockman; John Maynard Smith: Corbin O’Grady Studio/Science Photo Library; The Selfish Gene: courtesy Keith Cullen.

  INDEX

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.

  Abbott, Roger 220, 234

  Adam, Jan 184, 185, 186-7

  Adams, Douglas 221

  Adams, Richard 111

  Africa 85

  Dawkins family in 25, 29-40, 43-53, 55-60, 69

  in Second World War 29-34

  albatrosses 260

  Albery, John 163

  Ali (servant and companion) 30, 31, 50

  altruism 130-1, 259-60, 264

  reciprocal 271

  social 198-9

  ancestry 5

  Anderson, Lindsay 137

  Andrew, Richard 273

  Animal Behaviour (journal) 187

  animals

  classification 161

  design 159-60

  empathy with 97-8

  prey 180-1, 252

  see also ethology

  Annestown, Ireland 199

  ants 198-9

  apoptosis 223

  Ardrey, Robert

  Shadow of Heroes 163

  The Social Contract 261

  The Territorial Imperative 261

  Army Cadet Corps 125-6, 127

  art 46

  artificial intelligence 234

  Attenborough, David 116

  Attention Threshold Model 190-1, 210

  Australia 172

  Ayer, Sir A. 218

  babies (human)

  family resembance 10

  visual perception 183

  Baden-Powell, Robert, 86

  funeral 31

  Baerends, G. P. 251

  Baez, Joan 46

  Balliol College, Oxford 7-8, 92, 290

  RD at 145, 149-53, 162-5

  amateur dramatics at 162-3

  Gordouli song 49

  ‘To the Balliol Men Still in Africa’ (Belloc) 8-9

  Victorian Society 163-4

  Barlow, George 196, 201, 207, 208, 209, 219

  Bateson, Patrick 243, 255

  Beeching, H. C. 7

  Beer, Colin 211, 215-16

  bees 130-1, 133-4

  Belloc, Hilaire: ‘To the Balliol Men still in Africa’ 8-9

  Bennet-Clark, Henry 238

  Bentley, David 208, 236

  Bergman, Ingmar 165

  Berkeley, California 205-10, 215

  see also University of California at Berkeley

  Betjeman, John 24, 119, 139

  Bible 64, 103, 132, 218

  biochemistry 153, 167-8, 287-8

  biology 13, 15, 158, 233, 290

  sociobiology 208

  birds 14, 260

  courtship behaviour 253-4, 267

  drinking 225-8, 229

  Bertram Smythies’ books on 12

  see also chicks

  birdsong 178-9, 243

  Blackmore, Susan 280

  blacksmith 129

  Book of Mormon 64

  Borneo 12

  Bowra, Maurice 152

  Breton languages 15

  British Empire 79, 163

  see also Colonial Service

  Brooke, Rupert 165, 166

  brothers 115-16

  Brown, Dick 174

  Brunet, Peter 153, 157, 158, 167

  Bulhak, Andrew 235

  bullying 124-5, 206-7

  internet 98

  school 66-7, 96-8

  Burk, Ted 236

  Burma 9, 12, 23

  butterflies 57

  Cadet Corps 125-6, 127

  Caernarvon Castle (ship) 55

  Cain, Arthur 158, 161-2

  Cambridge University 25, 150-1, 154

  Department of Zoology, subDepartment of Animal Behaviour (Madingley) 176, 243

  1975 conference 243; RD’s paper at 243-4, 246, 251, 255

  Natural Science Tripos 157

  Camm, F. J. 20-1

  Campbell, Bruce 282

  Campbell, Major 105-6, 110, 116

  camping 114

  Cape Town 29

  Carroll, Lewis 10, 217, 260

  cars 59, 89, 109, 114, 144

  Cartwright, W. ‘Boggy’ 126

  Cary, Frank (‘Tank’) 63, 65, 67

  Cassiopeia (boat) 29

  caterpillars 180-1

  catfish 180

  Ceylon 21

  Chafyn Grove school, Salisbury 81, 85-106, 109

  chapel 100-1, 103-4

  corporal punishment 87

  Railway Club 104-5

  religion 100-1, 102-3

  reports 95

  school play 92-3

  Scout Troop 91

  visiting lecturers 101-2

  Chaliapin, Feodor 50

  cheetahs 252

  St Anne’s School, Chelmsford 76

  Chetwood Aiken, K. O. 104-5

  Chiang Yee: The Silent Traveller in Oxford 152

  chicks

  drinking 225-8, 229

  pecking 179, 182-3, 185-9, 189-90, 209-10; Attention Threshold Model 189-90, 210; colour choice 185-8, 190, 209; Drive Threshold Model 187-90, 209, 210; sequence 186, 209-10; timing 189

  children

  babies 10, 183

  credulity 51, 102

  cruelty 66-7, 96-8, 122

  fantasy 45-6, 80

  language 14, 39, 46-7, 85

  peer pressure 128

  and prayer 67-8, 77, 80

  separation from parents 23

  songs 57

  weaning 270-1

  Chipping Norton 141

  choice, testing see Drive Threshold Model

  choir 136-7

  Chopin, Frédéric: Nocturnes 56

  Christianity 13, 139-40, 144

  Confirmation 102-3

  Christmas 52, 75

  Father Christmas 38, 50-2

  circumcision 36-7

  Clint
on, General Sir Henry 4, 5

  code, for letters 39

  Collins, Judy 46

  Colonial Service 9-10, 11, 23, 25, 79

  Colyear, Lady Juliana 9

  comfort blankets 74-5

  computer programming 192-3, 194, 221-2, 234-6, 253, 291

  ‘Dawkins Organ’ 219-21, 230, 231

  and grammar 234-5, 238, 244-6

  hierarchical organization 249-51

  languages 192, 219, 234; Algol-60 234, 236, 253; BASIC 236; BEVPAL 221; Elliott Autocode 194; Fortran 233, 234; K-Autocode 192; SysGen 233-4; translation 236

  music 219-21, 231-2, 236-8

  Mutual Replaceability Cluster Analysis 249-51

  for PDP-8 233

  ‘Postmodernism Generator’ 235

  STRIDUL-8 236-8, 239

  computers 191-2, 193-4, 218-22, 239

  early American 192

  Elliott 803 194, 218-19, 232

  KDF9 192

  Moore’s Law 218-19, 239

  PDP-8 219, 233, 234

  writing on 276-7

  confirmation 102-3

  Conradi, Peter 12-13

  control theory 233

  Copplestone, Miss (school matron) 65-6

  Corley, Hugh 133-4

  Cornish 15-17, 18

  Cornwall 18, 19, 21, 55

  corporal punishment 87, 137

  courtship behaviour

  crickets 236-8

  guppies 249, 250, 251

  pheasants 267

  pigeons 253-4

  Creed, Robert 160

  crested cranes 58

  cricket (sport) 153-4

  crickets (insects): courtship song 236-8

  Croze, Harvey 175

  Cuckoos farmhouse, Essex 75, 77

  Cullen, Mike 171-4, 175, 197, 201, 216, 221, 232, 243

  Currey, John 159

  Daly, Mrs 79

  Darlington, Cyril 282

  Darwin, Charles 141, 278, 290-1, 292, 293-4

  Origin of Species 293

  Darwinism