Who was J. B. S. Haldane?: Samanth Subramanian: A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane; W. W. Norton, New York, 2020, 400 pp, $40 hbk, ISBN 978-0-393-63424-2

Subramanian has produced a new biography of Haldane taking into account archival material that has only become public during the last decade. He has been able to provide a more complete picture of Haldane’s personal life than earlier biographers, such as his difficult schooldays at Eton and the deterioration of his first marriage. He has also highlighted the extent to which Haldane was kept under constant secret surveillance by British intelligence services because of his politics. However, the book is less successful in its account of Haldane’s scientific work including what he contributed to modern evolutionary theory, the Fisher–Haldane relationship, Haldane’s role in the Lysenko controversy, and what he achieved after emigration to India in 1957.