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The Ancestor's Tale

A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life

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The Ancestor's Tale

By: Richard Dawkins, Yan Wong
Narrated by: Lalla Ward, Richard Dawkins
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A fully updated edition of one of the most original accounts of evolution ever written.

'Extraordinarily detailed, serious and engaging' Daily Mail
'One of the richest accounts of evolution ever' Financial Times
'Dizzying . . . fresh, exhilarating' Daily Telegraph

The Ancestor's Tale is a dazzling, four-billion-year pilgrimage to the origins of us all. Richard Dawkins and Yan Wong take us on an exhilarating reverse journey through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life. It is a journey happily interrupted by meetings of fellow modern animals (as well as plants, fungi and bacteria) similarly tracing their evolutionary path back through history. As each evolutionary pilgrim tells their tale, Dawkins and Wong shed light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection and extinction.

Written with unparalleled wit, clarity and intelligence, taking in new scientific discoveries of the past decade and including new 'tales', illustrations and fractal diagrams, The Ancestor's Tale shows us just how remarkable we are.

'A new chronicle of life, wonderfully illustrated, from this great evolutionist' Economist

'The result is not just a wealth of ideas about how living things evolved, but a strong sense of the urgency and absorption with which science is done' Independent

'The Ancestor's Tale achieves the almost impossible: it makes biology . . . interesting again' Lancet

'This is epic stuff indeed and Mr Dawkins carries it off with triumphant skill, never sacrificing the complexity of his argument to the voracious god of dumbing down' Wall Street Journal

See what readers are saying:

'[An] eminently readable book, fizzing with evidence, anecdote, theories and speculation' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'These essays are marvels of wit and models of scientific integrity' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'If this is the only pilgrimage you undertake during your lifetime, I'm sure you will find it a most rewarding one' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐©2003 Richard Dawkins Biological Sciences Biology Evolution Evolution & Genetics Genetics Science Natural History Thought-Provoking Paleontology Elephant
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Critic reviews

In this extraordinary book, Dawkins turns chronicler. He does so with a clever twist that avoids the perennial problem of evolutionary history-telling ... As a contribution to the history of ideas this book is well worthy of Britain's top public intellectual. The arguments are as sharply honed as we have come to expect from Dawkins (Matt Ridley)
THE ANCESTOR'S TALE achieves the almost impossible: it makes biology interesting again (Steve Jones)
One of the richest accounts of evolution ever written
Should be given to all young persons starting out on their exploration of the world. It will excite their curiosity and awe and prove to them that the world is inexhaustible in its fascination
No other book I have read has given me such a dizzyingly immediate sense of the vastness and strangeness of the changes brought about by evolution over the eons, or how intimately all life is bound together ... THE ANCESTOR'S TALE makes you feel you have seen the world in a fresh, exhilarating way (Robert Hanks)
All stars
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With talent and style, R Dawkins leads us through the maze of ancestry, origins, confraternity between the species, and places all this information in the context of the universe, which he also explains with consumate care and seeming ease for those of us who are not scientists of any kind.
It is book to listen to time and again, whose depths mirror those of the very universe he helps us to envisage. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

an intelligible tale

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Loved listening to the book. Authors ability to convince and his knowledge is inspiring.

Superb book

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Definitely. All Dawkins books open your eyes that little bit more

Any additional comments?

Simply must read them all

Understanding the world makes it more wonderful

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Catapulting backwards through time, with a cast of characters from Apes, to Anemones, and Amoebas, this book is a must listen for anyone with even a passing interest in the natural world, and required reading for all budding biologists.

Narrated masterfully by Dawkins and Ward, engaing, well paced and never patronising the pilgrimage winds its way through the millenia, illuminating here, clarifying there, and always leaving open the door for futher exploration. The smaller the ancestor the larger the sense of wonder at what has been discovered and how much work is left to be done.

This book will make you appreciate the natural world and our place in it as humans, without ever belittling or browbeating. Calmly confounding counterarguments and admiting that what the authors know they dont know, with a little more work, it might be possible to find out.

Adventure story masquerading as a text book

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The first thing that struck me about this audio is that they are different to the book. Not only are they abridged but the language is changed to emphasize different points & to be more palatable to the ear. With reading the book, a lot of the stuff flew over my head (e.g. Cholanoflagellates) & I'm glad such things are abridged here.

The second is the presence of Lalla Ward, who seems to cover the large quotations Dawkins often uses in his works & also seems to read the more technical (or rather more mundane) parts of the tales. Having listened to the whole of Origin of Species, I am thankful that the narrator varies a bit as occasionally Dawkins can read things as known that are unknown to his wife (& so read differently).

In terms of content there is still the rich variety of tales (including my favourite: the Duck-billed Platypus) & I can only recall a few interesting Gambits which have been left out (e.g. Eve evolving 40,000 years before Adam & the Paedomorphosis of Man story).

My one criticism is that the Ancestor's tale is very detailed & involves lots of left-brain work. If you are listening to this in a car (or even typing a review!) then it is hard to fully follow the reasoning. Maybe this is because Men can't multi-task, but I'd be bold enough to suggest that even women may find this difficult...

To conclude then, audio books are often overlooked as a medium & it is to this one's credit that it is adapted to the ear, just as the book is adapted to the eye. If you know of anyone who hasn't read the book then I'd suggest giving them this as a starter, and the hard backed version of the book (with its shiny pictures) as a main course. As one of my fellow reviewers says: 1 copy of this book should be given to every member of mankind, to put the doubts about evolution to rest. Whatever you can do to play your part is to your credit.

The same notes but a different symphony

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