Homage to Gaia: The Life of an Independent Scientist by James Lovelock ( Oxford University Press, £9.99)

Love him or hate him, James Lovelock has had a tremendous impact on our understanding of the environment and the planet on which we live. He proposed the revolutionary and controversial theories about Gaia, the idea that the Earth is able to regulate itself so as to support life. Gaia quickly became a touchstone for a generation of environmentalists but was derided by many of that same generation's scientists, particularly the evolutionary biologists. Here Lovelock gives himself an opportunity to set the record straight, stripping away the host of misconceptions about the meaning of Gaia that have grown up about it like ivy on a tree. He takes us through his early life, how he worked as an independent scientist beholden to no one or no organisation. He explains how Gaia came to be and his later attempts to not only explain but to prove its existence to sceptical scientific colleagues.