All Categories - Michael Marshall

Michael Marshall

"The Genesis Quest" has been reviewed in "The Biologist" magazine

28/9/2020

My book The Genesis Quest has been favourably reviewed in The Biologist, the official magazine of the Royal Society of Biology. The review is by Professor Jim Lynch of the University of Surrey and it's very positive. Sample quotes:

"The book's distinctive style comes from well-researched analysis of the behaviour and lifestyles of the various scientists who have contributed to this fascinating and uniquely difficult question."

"This book is an extremely stimulating read and I recommend it most strongly to scientists and laymen alike."

Read the full review in The Biologist

My book "The Genesis Quest" is OUT NOW in the UK

20/8/2020

Today, 20 August 2020, is the UK publication day for my first book The Genesis Quest!

The book is the story of scientists' struggle to understand how life began on Earth. It's a mystery story with a fascinating cast of real-life characters, and an exploration of one of the biggest questions in modern science - a question that has fascinated me for years.

From the back cover: "By asking how life came to be, we are implicitly asking why we are here, whether life exists on other planets, and what it means to be alive. This book is the story of a group of fragile, flawed humans who chose to wrestle with these questions."

The Genesis Quest has been a labour of love that's taken three years, plus a decade of journalistic legwork to amass the knowledge and contacts to attempt it. I'm so excited for you all to finally be able to read it.

A huge thank-you to everyone who has helped me along the way. The book wouldn't exist without you! An equally huge thank-you to everyone who has already bought it. Your support means so much!

Also, I, er, I do have a few ideas for a second one...

More about The Genesis Quest, and a list of places to order it, on this page

Luis Campos reviews my book "The Genesis Quest"

20/7/2020

I'm happy to share a new review of my book The Genesis Quest (to complement the two already released). This one comes from science historian Luis A. Campos at the University of New Mexico, author of Radium and the Secret of Life. Campos says:

"The Genesis Quest recounts remarkable episodes in the history of attempts to scientifically understand the origin of life. Combining exceptionally clear expositions of what is scientifically at stake, distinctive humor, and a roving eye for the telling anecdote, this is anything but a tedious scientific genealogy. Marshall has a flair and talent for explaining each individual experiment and its intellectual context. The Genesis Quest offers a well-done romp through some fascinating and complicated terrain."

The first reviews of my book "The Genesis Quest" are in

24/6/2020

I've been sent the first two reviews of The Genesis Quest, from my US publishers the University of Chicago Press. I'm both excited and a bit bashful to share them. They made me go squee.

"Marshall has rounded up all the past and current thinking about this profound and puzzling question – how did life begin? – into a neat, enthralling and highly digestible package. He doesn't pretend we can answer the question, but does justice to all the key proposals so far. And if anything, his survey of potential solutions makes the appearance of life on Earth seem all the more astonishing as we examine the issue ever more closely." Philip Ball, author of How To Grow a Human

"Prepare yourself for a dazzling intellectual journey: the science is fascinating, the cast of characters all-too-human, and the philosophical insights deep. Written in clear and entertaining prose, like a Sherlock Holmes story, this is the best book I know for general readers about the quest to solve one of our most enduring mysteries: how and where, in a seemingly purposeless universe, life began on planet earth." Oren Harman, coeditor of Dreamers, Visionaries, and Revolutionaries in the Life Sciences and Outsider Scientists: Routes to Innovation in Biology

The Russian edition of "The Genesis Quest" will be published by Corpus

22/5/2020

My book The Genesis Quest is going to be published in Russia.

The Russian rights have been bought by Corpus Books, a division of Russia's largest trade publisher AST. I'm told this means I will share a publisher with Donna Tartt, Jonathan Franzen and Salman Rushdie - which is ever so slightly surreal.

The audiobook edition of "The Genesis Quest" will be read by Ciaran Saward

22/5/2020

I'm happy to announce that the audiobook of my book The Genesis Quest will be read by Ciaran Saward.

Ciaran was suggested by my UK publishers Weidenfeld & Nicolson. When I received their email I was all set to find fault, because THEY'RE MY PRECIOUS WORDS AND THIS RANDOM PERSON WILL RUIN THEM. Then I listened to some sample recordings and realised they had judged it perfectly. Ciaran sounds authoritative but not overbearingly so, and he has a lightness of touch that really suits the (hopefully) humorous bits of the book. Put another way, he sounds like I wish I sounded.

You can listen to Ciaran's voiceover work on his website.

The US book cover for The Genesis Quest

20/4/2020

Hot on heels of the UK cover for my book The Genesis Quest, here is the US cover.

This comes from the talented people at the University of Chicago Press, headed by my US editor Karen Darling.

Is it a cell? Is it the Earth? Or is it both at once, elegantly foreshadowing one of the book's central ideas?

One of the things I'm finding fascinating and eye-opening about this experience is the extent to which the best book covers are open to interpretation, even as they clearly signal the overall subject area.

The UK book cover for The Genesis Quest is here

18/4/2020

Look at it! It's the UK cover for my book The Genesis Quest, fresh from the Weidenfeld & Nicolson art department.

I love how beautifully simple it is, and how richly evocative. In the words of Maddy Price, my editor, it conveys "planet Earth, the Sun, the wonder of science, and the beginnings of new life all at once".

I can't wait for the book to be on shelves for you all to see. But in the meantime you can already pre-order it.

I now have an author profile page on Amazon

28/2/2020

Ahead of the publication of my first book The Genesis Quest in August, I've set up an Author page for myself on Amazon. I'll be posting updates about the book and other fun stuff on there. And in due course, maybe there'll be posts about future books too!

Visit my Amazon Author Page

My first piece for the Observer is about saving the world's fireflies

24/2/2020

Nori Yuasa/Getty Images

It's taken me almost 13 years in journalism but I've finally got around to getting a piece published in the Guardian - or rather, in the Observer, which is the Sunday version of the Guardian.

The story is called "Why the lights are going out for fireflies". It explores why the world's firefly populations are in decline, and what we might do about it.

It's probably for the best that the editors didn't take up my proposal to call it "Grave of the fireflies", after the saddest film ever made. For one thing, this story has a hopeful ending.