'This is not simply a book of ideas, it is also a book of stories, most astounding, many heartbreaking' - Bryan Appleyard, SUNDAY TIMES

Since the discovery of DNA, scientists have believed that genes are fixed entities that cannot be changed by environment - we inherit them, pass them on to our children and take them with us when we die.

Professor Tim Spector reveals how the latest genetic research and his own pioneering studies on epigenetics are rewriting everything we thought we knew about genes, identity and evolution. Conceptually, he explains, our genes are not fixed entities but more like plastic, able to change shape and evolve, and these changes can be passed on to future generations.

Tim Spector's dazzling guide to the hidden world of our genes reveals the complex role they play in shaping our identities, and will make you think again about everything from sexuality to religion, cancer to autism, politics to pubic hair, clones to bacteria, and what it is that makes us all so unique and quintessentially human.