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Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life | 
| Author: Georgina Ferry
Publisher: Granta Books
Category: Book
New (2) Used (11) from £3.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 138980
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 423
ISBN: 1862071675
EAN: 9781862071674
ASIN: 1862071675
Publication Date: November 26, 1998
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
"The lives of scientists, considered as lives, almost always make dull reading". Georgina Ferry has taken it upon herself to defy the late Peter Medawar's words with this delightful life of Dorothy Hodgkin. Dorothy who? Precisely Ferry's point. This book represents a first for both women; surprisingly this is the first biography of Hodgkin, who devoted her life to solving the structure of large complex molecules such as insulin, penicillin and vitamin B12, for which she received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964, and it is the first book by Ferry, a burgeoning talent in the field of science journalism. That both women emerge with their reputations considerably enhanced goes some way to compensating for the previous neglect. Ferry manages the near-miraculous in explaining the theory behind X-ray crystallography using clear and accessible terms that do not demand the powers of concentration that were perhaps Hodgkin's own greatest asset. Her personal life was characterised by distance; her childhood was spent mostly separated from her parents, she lived mainly apart from her husband Thomas, though the marriage lasted until his death in 1982, and the intellectual commitment she gave to her work inevitably affected the time she had for her children. However, she maintained a lifelong friendship with her mentor, J.D. "Sage" Bernal, legendary for his Marxism, voracious mind and even more voracious appetite for women, and until her death in 1994 she believed passionately in resolving international disputes through dialogue, leading her to become president of the anti-nuclear group Pugwash, and even to lobby a former student of hers, a certain Margaret Thatcher. Ferry treats her revelations regarding Hodgkin's relationships with an understated tact of which Hodgkin herself would have been proud and it is this sensitivity, allied to no little skill, that enables her to coax the quietly inspirational scientist out from the laboratory and in the process to belittle the notion that science, and people of science, cannot be extraordinary. --David Vincent
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| Customer Reviews:
Wonderful example April 28, 2008
A very balanced review of Dorothy Hodgkin..her work and life in general. If you are not of a 'science bias' then I would say 'read it at a relaxed pace'..there is so much to digest. What a wonderful example of a mother balancing intensive research with a home life..they sounded like a super family. This is the book for you if you have only vaguely heard of Dorothy and her work and want to know more. Inspiring. This is the book for every girl who has the 'science bias' ,but has doubts due to lack of encouragement in her chosen subject.
An inspiring and honest biography of a remarkable scientist December 28, 1998
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1919-1994) became an outstanding scientist in a period when it was harder than now for women to succeed in science. "with a list of honours including the Nobel prize, the Order of Merit, the Lenin Peace Prize- and the freedom of Beccles - she always gave her name as plain Dorothy Hodgkin,and insisted that the most junior of her colleagues call her simply Dorothy" It is not often that a work of scholarly biography makes the reader laugh aloud on page three without compromising the scholarship. Georgina Ferry manages to write mainly about the science, crystallography, that was Dorothy's life-long preoccupation without losing sight of the scientist herself. I am no crystallographer but the techniques and discoveries are so clearly described here that it is possible to share in the excitement of the discovery of the structure of Vitamin B12 and the frustrations in the persuit of the structure of insulin. Dorothy's marriage to Thomas Hodgkin and her life long relationship with Desmond Bernal are dealt with honesty and a sensitive understanding of what it might be like for a woman in a social circle where every one,the men at any rate, believed in free love. She does not gloss over the painful moments nor does she dwell on them with embarrassing prurience. Not only Dorothy but Thomas and Bernal emerge as convincing and likable characters. This book gives a much clearer and more sympathetic account of the political, scientific and social friendships of that group of left-wing British intellectuals than either Gary Werskey's Visible College or Maurice Goldsmith's biography Sage, which cover a similar area. The book is truthful at a scientific and a personal level . It is also very readable. Dorothy was always held up to me by my father as a shining example, " You can be a girl scientist like Dorothy Hodgkin" even at five I realised that was unlikely and was relieved to read that she hated to be called a "Role Model. None the less the book is a powerful inspiration to younger women scientists about what is possible.
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