Biogaphy is a popular genre with publishers, booksellers and readers. But who ‘deserves’ a biography, and why should anyone read it? Local science writer Georgina Ferry is the author of biographies of the Nobel prizewinning scientists Dorothy Hodgkin and Max Perutz. She will talk about how she researched their lives, using both documentary and oral sources, and how she sought to place their scientific achievements in a broader cultural context for non-specialist readers.