The distinguished author and thinker Professor Richard Dawkins comes to Dublin later this month to deliver an Irish Times/Royal Dublin Society lecture.
He will read from his latest book, a selection of essays called A Devil's Chaplain.
Prof Dawkins, above, is one of the world's most engaging and challenging science writers. An evolutionary biologist by profession, he nonetheless applies a poet's skills to his essays and books. He brings beautiful clarity to the most difficult of scientific concepts yet does so in a style akin to that of fine literature.
His Science Today lecture on February 17th is one in a series organised by The Irish Times and the RDS. The goal is to help develop a greater public understanding of and appreciation for scientific endeavour by bringing to Dublin the world's top researchers and commentators.
Edited by Latha Menon, Prof Dawkins's latest work follows earlier best-sellers such as The Selfish Gene, River Out of Eden and Unweaving the Rainbow. A Devil's Chaplain is very different, however, providing a personal portrait of the author and a glimpse into his private world.
It spans a wide range of his interests, from science and evolution to religion and memories of people and places. In "A Prayer for My Daughter" he writes an open letter to his daughter when she was 10, urging her to hold to reason and evidence against beliefs based on authority and revelation alone.
The collection includes eulogies written for his friend Douglas Adams, the late author of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and for the evolutionary biologist WD Hamilton. It contains his foreword to John Diamond's book Snake Oil and Other Preoccupations and forewords to three books on Africa.
Also included are copies of his final personal correspondence with fellow scientist and author Stephen Jay Gould, who died last year. Although much has been written about differences between the two men, the essay reveals a different relationship.
Prof Dawkins will chose from this varied palette for his talk at 7pm on February 17th, reading extracts specially selected for his visit to Dublin.
The author is Charles Simonyi professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford and a fellow of the Royal Society. A graduate of Oxford, he did his doctorate under the Nobel winner Niko Tinbergen. After a stint at the University of California at Berkeley, he returned to Oxford, where he is a fellow of New College.
Tickets for Prof Dawkins's lecture are free but must be booked by telephone. Tickets will not be issued but the booking confirms your place. Call 1550-114708 from the Republic or 0906-6040248 from Northern Ireland, leaving your name and telephone number and the number of seats you require (maximum two per person). Calls cost 74 cent per minute; calls from mobile phones may be more expensive. The lines will remain open until the 750 places at the lecture are fully booked. Tickets are not available from The Irish Times or the Royal Dublin Society.
- A Devil's Chaplain, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £16.99 in UK