John and Mary Gribbin - Five Way Interview

Mary and John Gribbin are bestselling authors and science writers. As a pair, they have written several science books, including Being Human, Fire on Earth, major biographies of Richard Feynman and Robert Hooke plus Edmond Halley, and the 'in 90 minutes' series of biographies. Mary is a previous winner of the TES Junior Information Book Award and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex. John’s title Six Impossible Things was shortlisted for the 2019 Royal Society Science Book Prize and he is also a Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex. Their latest book is Against the Odds. 

Why this book?

We enjoy writing biographies of scientists, which gives us particular scope to collaborate, with Mary rooting out the biographical background and John focussing on the science (although neither role is exclusive). We hadn't done one for a while, and particularly wanted to highlight a female scientist this time.  But we had great trouble deciding which of several impressive candidates to concentrate on, and in the end decided it would be fun to cover a selection of women who had careers which covered roughly the 20th century, highlighting the difficulties they had to overcome in order to achieve success in a male-dominated world.

You’ve written on many science subjects both separately and together - do you ever feel you will run out of subjects?

We always think we have run out of ideas, every time we finish a project.  But something always turns up -- well, so far! Often because of an item of news, or in conversation with the various scientists we are in touch with.

How does writing together differ from writing individually? Any preferences?

All of our books are now to a greater or lesser extent collaborations, regardless of who gets listed as named author, although John's very first books were essentially solo efforts. The process involves a lot of what a former editor referred to as 'creative tension', which means arguing about whether the science is explained properly, or how many parentheses are allowed per page, and so on. Writing alone does not involve so much of this, which makes it easier in a sense but results in an inferior product. So collaboration is best.

What’s next?

Open to suggestions, although we do have half an idea for a book about life.

What’s exciting you at the moment?

Quantum computing, which has now moved beyond the stage where we feel competent to write about it, and is becoming a practical reality before our very eyes. Most alarming development -- exciting in a different way -- is the way the scientific forecasts about the impact of human activity on climate are also coming true before our very eyes.  

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