Transworld signs new book from Dawkins

Transworld has signed up UK and commonwealth rights in Richard Dawkins’ new book, bought last week in the US by Free Press, a Simon & Schuster imprint, for a reported $3.5m. Sally Gaminara bought the book, which explores creationism and the evidence for evolution, from agent John Brockman for "a substantial sum".

The as-yet-untitled volume will be published in 2009, a year that will feature a double anniversary for Charles Darwin—the 200th anniversary of his birth in February, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species in November.

Gaminara said: "He is arguably the science writer most closely associated with Darwin and in my view it would be strange not to have a book by Richard Dawkins in this anniversary year.

"He feels that never in his lifetime has there been such a belief in creationism, in the US and also creeping into the school curriculum in this country, and as the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, he feels it is his duty to write a book that sets the record straight on the evidence for evolution."