Early days, 1924-33 -- The ancestors -- At Downe House School, 1932-7 -- At Oxford, 1938-42 -- Wartime jobs, 1942-5 -- In Oxford again, 1945-9 -- At Reading, 1949-50 -- At Newcastle, 1950-2005.

"The daughter of a pacifist rectore who answered "No!" when his congregation asked him 'Is everything in the Bible true?', perhaps Mary Midgley was destined to become a philosopher. Yet few would have thought this inquisitive, untidy, nature-loving child would become 'one f the sharpest critical pens in the west.' Plainly told like her philosophy, this is an elegaic and moving account of frienships found and lost, bitter philosophical battles and of a profound love of teaching all too rarely acknowledged today. Mary Midgley was born in London in 1919. She is one of the most renowned moral philosophers of her generation and the author of many books, including Beast and Man, Wickedness and The Myths We Live By."-- Taken from back cover.