- Published: 1 August 2012
- ISBN: 9780552778053
- Imprint: Black Swan
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 272
- RRP: $22.99
The Magic of Reality
How we know what's really true

















- Published: 1 August 2012
- ISBN: 9780552778053
- Imprint: Black Swan
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 272
- RRP: $22.99
Dawkins has a gift for making science enjoyable ... [He is] one of the greatest scientific writers/explainers of all time.
Bill Gates
The text is persuasive whatever one's age ... the chapter on rainbows has the clearest explanation of how they appear that I've ever seen
Financial Times
A charming and free-ranging history of science
The Sunday Times
Prodigiously illustrated and beautifully designed ... I cannot think of a better, or simpler, introduction to science
Guardian
It's the clearest and most beautifully written introduction to science I've ever read. Again and again I found myself saying "Oh! So that's how genes work!" (or stars, or tectonic plates, or all the other things he explains). Explanations I thought I knew were clarified; things I never understood were made clear for the first time
Philip Pullman
I wanted to write this book but I wasn't clever enough. Now I've read it, I am
Ricky Gervais
The Magic of Reality provides a beautiful, accessible and wide ranging volume that addresses the questions that all of us have about the universe...written with the masterful and eloquently literate style of perhaps the best popular expositor of science, Richard Dawkins, and delightfully illustrated by Dave McKean. What more could anyone ask for?
Lawrence Krauss, author of Quantum Man, and A Universe from Nothing
From the first sentence it reads with the force and fluency of a classic ... a luminous, authoritative prose that transcends age differences
The Times
Stunning in appearance ... the book is a triumph
New Scientist
This book may be exactly what's needed to increase science literacy for readers of all ages
Publishers Weekly
This book is primarily aimed at teenagers, but plenty of adults will get a kick out of it too...McKean's drawings bring the text to life brilliantly ... Dawkins writes convincingly about everything from chemistry to statistics
Independent on Sunday
Dawkins uses a simple, brilliant technique highly appealing to young and old
The Washington Post
Few scientists manage to reach a huge popular audience. Even among them Richard Dawkins is distinctive for the clarity and elegance of his prose. The Magic of Reality... will be appreciated by inquisitive children while illuminating much for the adult general reader.
The Times