PMJ pre-empts Oxford professor’s ‘dazzling’ history of the universe

Penguin Michael Joseph has acquired a “dazzling” history of the universe and why we came to exist by Tim Coulson, professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford.

Publisher Alan Samson pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights to A Universal History of Me: The Science of Why We Exist, Coulson’s first book, from Rebecca Carter of Rebecca Carter Literary, for publication in 2025.

The publisher says: “Tim has spent his career mathematically modelling complex ecologies and writing academic papers. At the age of 54 he became fixated by the idea of writing a book that encapsulates for the general reader everything he as a scientist has wanted to find out about life, the universe and everything.

“Few authors attempt the huge task of writing the whole story of how and why human life came to be in the form that it is, from the Big Bang to consciousness, from evolution of the genetic code to why we each have different personalities. Tim’s aim in A Universal History of Me is to bring all the sciences together, showing how as a biologist he became fascinated by physics and chemistry. He wants to tell us the extraordinary, unfinished story of what scientists have managed to ascertain (so far) about what had to happen for you and me to exist.”

It continued that A Universal History of Me is a book that will “intertwine what happened to make our existence possible with how we know what happened”, focusing on “how science finds out new knowledge, and the current state of that knowledge.”

Coulson said: “Following a near-death experience as a 21-year-old, I decided my life’s goal would be to work out what science could tell me about why we exist, and why I am the way I am. I became fascinated by the question of whether we were inevitable at the birth of the universe, or if we are just incredibly lucky. Physicists and biologists will give you different answers. I had to research physics, astronomy, chemistry, Earth sciences, biology (my day job) and psychology to satisfy my curiosity, and as I did so I pieced together an epic history that was so remarkable I felt compelled to write it.”

Samson said: “Tim Coulson’s brilliantly concise history of the universe from the Big Bang to why we each have different personalities will appeal to the multitude of readers of Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything [Black Swan] and - back in the day – Carl Sagan’s Cosmos [Abacus]. Tim’s inspirational account of why we came to exist is the primer anyone interested in science will want to own."

Carter added: “You can tell Tim has been thinking for a long time about how to write about science for a popular audience, because he has found a voice that is immediately engaging and inspiring. I’m so thrilled that Alan Samson and the Penguin Michael Joseph team recognised this straightaway and swept the book off the table. They are the perfect home for it.”