Meet Brian - Author, Brian Clegg

"Science should be fun. If the only science you've read is a text book, you'll have a pleasant surprise. There's plenty of great science writing  - and it's for everyone. Just as we all should make the effort to appreciate great art - not because it's worthy, but because we'll get a lot out of it - so we should take regular dips into science. Enjoy the sense of wonder."

See a short video clip of Brian talking about science, drop Brian an e-mail, find out a bit about him in his biography, see details of events at which Brian will be speaking, read Brian's blog, and read an interview with Brian.

Talking Science

Brian Clegg on science:

Talk Back

Please send emails for Brian to the Popular Science website by clicking here. They will be forwarded within a day or two.

Biography

Brian has written a range of popular science books, on subjects including light, infinity, quantum entanglement and surviving global warming, plus biographies of Roger Bacon and Eadweard Muybridge. His book A Brief History of Infinity (Constable & Robinson) was launched with a sell-out lecture at the Royal Institution in London, and he has appeared at a range of other venues, from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to the Dana Centre at the Science Museum and the Cheltenham Festival of Science, and has contributed to both radio and TV programmes. Brian is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Born in Rochdale, Lancashire, UK, Brian was educated at the Manchester Grammar School and went on to read Natural Sciences (specializing in experimental physics) at Cambridge University. After graduating, he spent a year at Lancaster University where he gained a second MA in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.

From Lancaster, he joined British Airways, where he formed a new department tasked with providing all PC hardware, software and consultancy to the airline. When this was successfully running, he set up the Emerging Technologies Group, a team of the most eccentric but talented staff in the company, who researched and trialled technologies from fingerprint recognition to electronic cash. This emphasis on innovation led to training with Dr. Edward de Bono, and in 1994 he left BA to set up his own creativity consultancy, running courses on the development of new ideas and products, and the creative solution of business problems. His clients include the BBC, the Met Office, British Airways, GlaxoSmithKline, Sony, Royal Bank of Scotland and many other blue-chips.

Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous magazines, including Nature, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.

Brian lives in a Wiltshire village with his wife and twin children. When not writing, a considerable amount of his time is involved in music, having a passion for Tudor and Elizabethan church music.

Blog

A copy of Brian Clegg's blog from the Nature Network (may take a few seconds to appear).

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Interview

In an interview, Brian talks about being a popular science writer:

What started you on writing?

I've written things as long as I can remember. At junior school I produced a series of comics (the artwork was awful), and later on I was always writing short stories. My first attempt to write a novel was in my teens. I never really stopped writing, but when I worked at British Airways I had limited time for it. It was about this time that I took a logical look at what I was doing. Instead of just writing the first thing that came into my head, I looked for promising markets. Initially this meant writing for computer magazines, then business magazines and business books before making it to popular science.

Whatever happened I would have written - there's just something inside that makes it happen, and I wanted that writing to be published. I do regret that the school system, certainly when I was in my teens, forced a decision between sciences and the arts. I would have loved to have studied some combination like physics, maths and english. Eventually I did break through, but I think it would have been sooner if I'd more early opportunities to develop my writing skills.

Is it hard to keep focussed?

It's the question I get asked most. Given a lot of my working day is just sitting around at home, don't I keep getting distracted from work? In fact it's no problem. It's not so much that I'm hugely organized, as that I really want to do write, and so I do get round to it. Having said that, like practically everyone I really do have to apply a bit of self-discipline. My natural tendency when I sit down at the computer is to spend as much time as possible checking me e-mail, reading journals and so on - I do have to force myself to get started, but once I do, I wonder why it was a problem because I enjoy it so much.

It is, to be honest, a great job if you don't mind being on your own a lot. I take my dog (a golden retriever) for a walk midmorning most days, and I look out at all the offices and factories that I can see from the nearby fields, and think how lucky I am to be able to go for that walk when I want to. To be fair though, the walk is very much part of the working day - I have almost all my best ideas on these walks, and always take a voice recorder to capture ideas as I go.

What do like best about being a writer?

There is something very satisfying about getting the right words on the page. Sometimes it just flows, almost faster than it's possible to do the typing, and that's great. But most of all I like it when I've managed to explain something in a way that makes it more accessible to other people. That's wonderful. I would also be lying if I didn't admit that there is something very special about going into a bookshop and seeing a book on the shelves with my name on the spine (or even better, a pile of them!).

Why do you write popular science?

Science has always fascinated me. There is a sense of wonder about the more amazing aspects of science that really isn't duplicated in any other subject. It's a childlike thing - it takes you back to the best bits of being a child - without being childish. The trouble is, it is often put across in a dull way, and I relish the opportunity to do it differently. It's also because it's a subject I've always enjoyed as a reader.

Who are your favourite writers?

I am very eclectic in my reading. In fiction I do read a fair amount of science fiction and fantasy - my favourites are Gene Wolfe on the serious side and Robert Rankin as a humorist (and J. G. Ballard if I want to feel miserable) - but I'm equally likely to be reading P. G. Wodehouse, Ian McEwan, P. D. James, Margery Allingham or Jane Austen. Of the other popular science authors, I'm particularly fond of James Gleick, and Simon Singh is always good value for money, but again I read fairly widely in non-fiction. At the moment my reading pile includes Walter Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin, Jill Badonsky's Nine Modern Day Muses and Alvin Toffler's classic Future Shock.

Do you prefer writing about people or about science?

The simple answer is 'yes'. I think that writing a pure biography misses out on the edge I have in being able to explain scientific topics, but science alone lacks a roundness it gains by adding the people factor in. I really wish there had been more about the people involved when I studied Natural Sciences at university - although I've always been interested in science, a lot of the topics were a lot duller than they would have been if I'd known something of the personalities involved.

Some of my books - such as Light Years and Infinity - have tended to be topic driven. Others - First Scientist and The Man Who Stopped Time - driven by an individual, but always for me it's the mix of people and science that makes the subject so fascinating.

Would you ever write a novel?

No doubt about it, yes. It's a real shame that the way our attitude to books works, we put people into one category and expect them to stick to it. (Funnily we seem to be happy that a politician or a gardener can write a novel, but not a non-fiction writer who has a much closer skill match.) This was particularly obvious when the late Douglas Adams brought out an excellent non-fiction book, Last Chance to See, which didn't do as well as his other writing, in part because he was out of his usual category. (I actually saw this natural history book in the science fiction section of several shops.)

This means the chances are that when I do get a novel published it will be under another name, but it will happen.

How do you choose a topic?

It can take quite many months. First and foremost, I'm looking for a subject that captures my imagination - I am going to have to live with the subject for a year or two as I research and write it. Then it has to be something that readers will be interested in - so when I first come up with topic suggestions I will bounce these off a number of people, notably my agent Peter Cox, but also friends in the science community and general readers. Finally it has to be a topic that, though interesting, hasn't been covered exhaustively. Einstein, for example, is fascinating, but another biography of Einstein would be just too much. Eventually it just seems to crystallize - once I've fixed on a topic it seems as if it was the obvious one all along.

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Last update 05 June 2007