Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science

The first volume, titled An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist, tells the first thirty-five years of his life, until the publication of The Selfish Gene in 1976. In Brief Candle in the Dark, Richard Dawkins continues his autobiography until an academic party for and "... on my seventieth birthday,....".[1] He explains his inspirations, ideas, encounters and history. He mentions some of his 'heroes' such as Charles Darwin, Peter Medawar, Niko Tinbergen, Bill Hamilton, John Maynard Smith, Douglas Adams, Carl Sagan and David Attenborough.[1]

He develops subjects such as his scientific work, travels and conferences, his Royal Institution Christmas Lecture (Growing Up in the Universe, in 1991), his work as Professor for the Public Understanding of Science in Oxford, his documentaries (such as The Root of All Evil?) as well as his personal life and his books.

Kirkus Reviews found the book "an impressive overview".[2] Dwight Garner wrote that the book "presents a public life more than a private one."[3] Steven Shapin wrote that the book is "a loose and multiply digressive collection of reminiscences, anecdotes, addenda, quotes from admirers, and extended quotes from himself."[4]