A collection, selected and edited by Professor Walter Gratzer (King's College London), of essays, speeches, and reports by J D Watson, author of The Double Helix. The pieces, which are lucid and wholly accessible to a general readership, give the authentic flavour of a period of momentous achievement in molecular biology. They deal with Watson's early life and career, science and politics, the advance of molecular genetics, and genetics and society. An Introduction by Gratzer is about Watson: the discovery of the structure of DNA and its aftermath, and his subsequent achievements. Gratzer also provides an Afterword commenting on where the science and the issues stand today: the recombinant DNA debate, the prospects for curing cancer over the next decade, and how human genetic knowledge is likely to be used, for good or bad.