Mike Bruton

This book is quite scientific as far as popular science books go. Not in a hard to understand way though. While it explores a variety of the author's experiences, a large proportion of the book is about his time at Lake Sibaya and about the discovery of the coelacanth (a story I already know well, so I found these parts a little less interesting). He definitely shows just how exciting and adventurous the life of a biologist can be. I also loved how he talked about his transition to working in education and founding places I have visited.… (más)

It is a pity that the editing is not very good: many references cited in the text are missing in the list, and a there is lot of repetition in the text, things that had already been said and that if one reads the book as a whole one remembers having read already. I also found their story puzzling, if not disturbing. The author did not go into it too deeply, he mostly gives the testimonials of other people who knew the couple. One suspects there was some kind of abuse in that marriage. The wife was basically there to serve the husband, doing the things he could not do, as he was a weak and sickly man. She had been his student. After they married she always referred to him as 'the Professor'. In the institute she treated him as Professor. Her only purpose in life was to keep him happy. She was not allowed to eat things he did not approve of, so she had to ask a colleague to buy her chocolates and then she would eat them in hiding. Their house looked like a warehouse because he did not like any furnishings or decorations. She was 20 years younger and dressed in plain clothes and flat sandals, with the hair in a bun, in fact as if she was trying to look like him, and never smiled in pictures. But when he died she changed overnight, became all flamboyant, dressed in flowery showy clothes, talking non-stop, and eating a lot. But she would bite people's heads off if they said anything critical of him.… (más)