Jane Gregory

That it’s taken me so many months to read this is the fault of neither author nor subject: it is all mine.

I read this hoping, like others no doubt, for illumination and amplification of the story Hoyle tells in his autobiography and Gregory certainly delivers. I guess autobiography is rather a ‘mind your own business, I’ll tell what I want’, whereas biography presumably has expectations and standards to meet.

Hoyle tells the story he wants to tell. Gregory does an admirable job of being Hoyle’s rivet man. She reports the early years pretty much as Hoyle does, no surprise there as Hoyle tells the story of those years in detail and is obviously going to be the principal source for his youth. But once he starts becoming part of the world of science Gregory comes into her own with a comprehensive depth and breadth of research. She has interviewed people, been through written background records from newspapers to government correspondence; in short, she’s looked at all the angles.

What emerges from this, as may be gleaned from the title, is a book that is far more than a biography. It is about the world in which he lives. One might read this book, for example, to gain understanding of how science and politics combine – or don’t. It tells the story of what the politicians need from science and vice versa, this at both national and international level. Who gets the credit for combined international projects? Who leads them? Scientists have an invidious choice in that they can leave all this to people who don’t necessarily, supposing the best will, have the understanding to make the decisions; or they can get involved themselves with the costs in time, emotional energy, pyche, that may result. Indeed this was the case for Hoyle whose battles on these fronts must have cost him dearly. There is much material here to fascinate the sociologist.

Rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/fred-hoyles-universe-by-j...… (meer)

That it’s taken me so many months to read this is the fault of neither author nor subject: it is all mine.

I read this hoping, like others no doubt, for illumination and amplification of the story Hoyle tells in his autobiography and Gregory certainly delivers. I guess autobiography is rather a ‘mind your own business, I’ll tell what I want’, whereas biography presumably has expectations and standards to meet.

Hoyle tells the story he wants to tell. Gregory does an admirable job of being Hoyle’s rivet man. She reports the early years pretty much as Hoyle does, no surprise there as Hoyle tells the story of those years in detail and is obviously going to be the principal source for his youth. But once he starts becoming part of the world of science Gregory comes into her own with a comprehensive depth and breadth of research. She has interviewed people, been through written background records from newspapers to government correspondence; in short, she’s looked at all the angles.

What emerges from this, as may be gleaned from the title, is a book that is far more than a biography. It is about the world in which he lives. One might read this book, for example, to gain understanding of how science and politics combine – or don’t. It tells the story of what the politicians need from science and vice versa, this at both national and international level. Who gets the credit for combined international projects? Who leads them? Scientists have an invidious choice in that they can leave all this to people who don’t necessarily, supposing the best will, have the understanding to make the decisions; or they can get involved themselves with the costs in time, emotional energy, pyche, that may result. Indeed this was the case for Hoyle whose battles on these fronts must have cost him dearly. There is much material here to fascinate the sociologist.

Rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/fred-hoyles-universe-by-j...… (meer)