AN ECONOMIST, GUARDIAN AND CHURCH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 Shortlisted for the Hatchards First Biography Prize 2025 'The definitive backstory of one of the towering figures of 20th-century science' Guardian Books of the Year 'Brilliant and inspiring. A landmark biography' Adam Rutherford Francis Crick was a restless, relentless thinker, as fascinated by Beat poetry and psychedelics as the genetic meaning of life and the inner workings of the brain. Yet for all his drive, he was galvanised by collaboration: with Jim Watson on DNA, with artists in Cambridge and California, and with his wife Odile, who drew the figure of the double helix that illuminated his most famous discovery. It was his debates and conflicts with these collaborators that powered a mind in motion. Meticulously researched and shot through with insight and electrifying detail, Matthew Cobb reveals the man who changed our view of life forever. Crick is the first major biography of one of the twentieth century's most exciting minds.

The definitive backstory of one of the towering figures of 20th-century science -- 'The best science and nature books of 2025' * Guardian *
Magisterial ... Cobb is reliably excellent in maintaining the narrative momentum of a life in science that was anything but mundane ... A gripping and accessible account -- Georgina Ferry * Nature *
Full of surprises ... fascinating ... If you are interested in how DNA's structure was discovered and what happened next, this is the book to read * New Scientist *
This captivating biography is deeply researched and elegantly written. Crick is painted as an extraordinary mind -bold, curious and combative - and the book offers a glimpse of his colourful personal life, replete with parties, affairs, drugs and feuds * Economist *
Vivid and authoritative ... [an] intriguing portrait of a gifted, self-absorbed, exuberant, and intuitive man * New York Times *
Magnificent and expansive ... Crick is set to become the definitive account of this polymath's life and work. -- Adrian Woolfson * Science *
Impressive ... absorbing ... Cobb writes with clarity and a touch of affection for his subject. His Crick is radical in science and conservative in temperament; deeply irreligious yet moved by poetry; a philanderer who adored his wife. Above all he is insatiably curious - a mind in motion, indeed * The Times *
The definitive biography of Francis Crick * Church Times *
Scintillating ... Time and time again, he condenses a mass of letters and bitty information into a gripping and involving story ... A biography to savour * Current Biology *
A clear and comprehensive account ... Cobb does an excellent job of explaining the science behind Crick's most significant work ... An excellent introduction to the man and his work * Literary Review *
Rich and rewarding * Irish Examiner *
I loved this brilliant biography of Crick -- Helen Czerski
Deeply researched and intellectually fascinating * Physics World *
Remarkable ... Cobb does a grand job * Sydney Morning Herald *
A new masterpiece biography ... deeply researched ... thrilling -- Eric Topol MD
Like Crick himself, this is brilliant and inspiring. A landmark biography -- Adam Rutherford, author * Creation *
An enthralling biography. Clear, sharp and meticulous, Crick is the story of a mind that never stopped questioning - and how science is still trying to catch up -- Roger Highfield, author * Virtual You *
This is the biography that Crick deserves: compellingly readable, insightful, celebratory and critical as the content demands, and entirely true to the spirit of this ingenious, remarkable and sometimes infuriating man. It is hard to imagine this book ever being bettered -- Philip Ball, author * How Life Works: A User's Guide *
Cobb's brilliant new biography tracks the weighty twentieth century life of Francis Crick. Just as Crick peered into DNA looking for its structure, Cobb peers into an idiosyncratic and even unlikely scientific career, from Cambridge to California, from DNA to neuroscience. Engaging and enlightening -- Alison Bashford, author * The Huxleys *
A fascinating insight into the man behind one of the most well-known names in biology and his incredible contributions to science. A detailed, affectionate and thoroughly enjoyable account of Crick's restless and relentless pursuit of the bigger truths -- Kathryn Harkup, author * The Secret Lives of the Elements *
At last: a life of Crick that resembles the original - immensely learned, jaunty, funny, often surprisingly tender. Cobb puts the legendary mind of Francis Crick back where it belongs - in the body of a very human being -- Nathaniel Comfort, biographer of James Watson
In this thrilling biography of one of the twentieth century's greatest minds, Cobb uncovers the unseen twists, relentless curiosity and sheer audacity that shaped Francis Crick's remarkable life. This intimate portrait will inspire any reader drawn to the thrill of discovery and the power of big ideas -- David Eagleman, author * The Brain *
Crick: A Mind in Motion beautifully captures the personality of Francis Crick, the way I knew him for 16 years, his incandescent intellect, his incessant striving for mechanistic explanations in terms of genes and neurons underlying the code of life and the footprints of consciousness in the brain, always, always asking why and why not, until, literally, the day he died -- Christof Koch, author * Then I Am Myself The World *

Matthew Cobb is Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester. The presenter of the BBC radio series Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares, his previous books include The Idea of the Brain: A History, which was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford, and The Genetic Age, a Sunday Times Book of the Year.