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Review - What Makes Me Me? - Robert Winston

I'll be quite honest, as a reviewer I started out with a bias against this book, because I personally find the author, Professor Robert Winston, rather condescending in his popular UK TV science shows. However, this bias could do nothing to prevent me from thinking the book is wonderful, which is a bit irritating, really.

Different sections look at "what I am made of", "what makes me unique", "how does my brain work", "what kind of person am I" and a series of tests to have a go at plumbing your own memory, skills and personality. It all flows beautifully and being DK it has plenty of visual impact. The very question in the title of the book makes it so much more interesting than just yet another "how do human bodies work?" book. It's about what makes me work, what I am and what my brain is - it's gobsmackingly good.

Complaints? Hard to find any. Sometimes the inevitable simplification misses out one or two essential points. The two page spread headed "the ingredients" tells us we are "65% oxygen, 18% carbon" and so on, but doesn't bother to point out that these percentages only make sense when considering weight, and there all sorts of other ways of dividing up our components. Occasionally the page heading questions don't seem to be answered. "Your inner self seems to make all your decisions, but is it really in control?" [their bold letters] asks a page - but it's hard to say where that question is answered anywhere on that page. And, as often happens with the DK style, there's sometimes so much going on in a page that it becomes quite hard to read - more white space, please!

But these are minor points, because there has to be something. The fact remains this is an enviably brilliant piece of science for younger readers and Winston deserves every accolade for it.

Only in hardback.

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

* Our age range recommendation is an estimated guide, but individual readers outside the range could still enjoy the book!

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