Darwin’s child

He believes fervently in the survival of the fittest and that we are pre-programmed by our genes. But Richard Dawkins also believes that life is much more interesting when we rebel against them.

Adventures in the book trade

True bibliophiles are a curious mix of the bounty-hunter, the conman and the scholar, says Chris Petit. John Baxter confesses to an obsession in his memoir, A Pound of Paper

Holy smoke

Gary Lachman on Daniel Pinchbeck's drug-assisted journey of self-discovery, Breaking Open the Head

Candid Cameron

She took her first photo at 48 and went on to capture the Victorian era with her portraits. Gaby Wood assesses the life of Julia Margaret Cameron as her complete works are published on the eve of a new show

Home on the range

If you want to know about America, hit the road with its nomads and travellers, and Richard Grant's Ghost Riders, says Jonathan Heawood

The Lady Macbeth of Paraguay

Frances Wilson is bemused by the mythologisation of Elisa Lynch, which continues with biographies from Siân Rees and Nigel Cawthorne

Lichens and other likenings

A dream led David Freedberg to the first visual archive of the natural world. He tells how science began with nothing more than a paintbrush in The Eye of the Lynx

Let there be light

James Fenton on why he hopes the V&A will jettison its disastrous display policy