After Dolly won the 2007 Tony Thistlethwaite award from the UK Medical Journalists' Association for a book on health or medical science aimed at the general reader.

"Written with Roger Highfield, the Daily Telegraph's science editor, After Dolly is pacy and extremely clear. The scientific jargon is properly explained, and there is an excellent glossary. It is worth reading, even if only to try to peer ahead in the hope of determining the outrageous fortune that will be the future of the human race."
Paul Riddell, The Scotsman

"Recommended for all science collections, as we all need to try to keep up with these complex and important issues."
Library Journal

"The how of cloning, beautifully told by optimists who believe that wise heads and good science will justify the whys."
Kirkus reviews

"The book is unusual in that it combines in one narrative a vivid firstperson scientific account with a discussion of the moral and ethical issues that have emerged, inevitably, from this research. This is unfiltered science writing without the polemical posturing often encountered when non-scientists try to interpret what scientists are doing."
Peter Pettus, New York Sun

"The book, despite its weighty concerns, avoids a moralizing tone and is exceedingly pleasant to read."
Scientific American

"In collaboration with Roger Highfield, a science journalist, Wilmut provides an extremely lucid and readable explanation of the history of cloning and biologists' ideas for the future."
Stephen Poole, Guardian

"Ably co-authored by Roger Highfield, After Dolly offers a fascinating insight into one of the most controversial yet promising areas of modern biology."
Peter Smith, Independent

"Animated by Highfield's enthusiasm for the extraordinary, The Science of Harry Potter is an enjoyably indirect survey of modern science."
Christine Kenneally, New York Times

"A wonderful hook for a wonderful book... As one reads The Science of Harry Potter it is impossible not to become intrigued."
Orlando Sentinel

"One does not need to be a fan of the Harry Potter series to enjoy this book, and with the breadth of scientific topics covered there is likely something new and fascinating for all readers."
Marc Lavine, Science

"He has interviewed the world's best Muggle scientists to identify the explanations behind everything from the Mirror of Erised to the Invisibility Cloak.... A great introduction to a whole variety of issues from game theory to evolution."
Simon Singh, Observer

"For anyone who has ever yearned to apply thermodynamics to Christmas goose, or who wonders what the star of Bethlehem was or why hot mulled wine makes you tipsier faster than a chilled Sancerre - for anyone, in short, who is curious about the science behind the season, The Physics of Christmas is just what the elves ordered."
Sharon Begley, Newsweek

"Is the book the perfect Christmas present? Pretty nearly. There is a risk that it won't reach the intended recipient if you open it yourself. Anyone receiving the book should save it for reading on Boxing Day. After all, you don't want to be accused of being antisocial on the big day, do you?"
Roy Herbert, New Scientist

"Roger Highfield's Can Reindeer Fly? is an irresistible stocking filler. From the science of the snowflake to the Virgin birth, to Santa's billion household visitation logistics, this thoroughly serious science editor has produced a hilarious romp that will delight all science buffs."
John Cornwell, The Sunday Times

"Roger Highfield's excellent book, Can Reindeer Fly? is a slew of scientific essays on the features of a traditional Christmas: snow, candles, turkey, fir trees, mulled wine and so on. He writes with pleasing gusto: the fact vortex is regularly leavened by imaginative analogies and contributions from a Cecil B DeMille cast of specialists (such as 'gastropod-sex expert Les Noble'). Highfield's aim is to exult in the sheer pleasure of scientific detection."
Steven Poole, The Guardian

A silly interview I did for the BBC

"Frontiers of Complexity is science journalism at its best, succinctly covering an impressively wide range of recent results and carefully tracing back their roots. The authors... have produced an impeccably researched, amazingly up-to-date, crisply written and well-illustrated survey of a plethora of scientific topics that have recently grabbed the media's attention."
Karl Sigmund, Nature

"Arguably the best general book so far on this highly complex subject. I believe firmly, with Coveney and Highfield, that complexity is the scientific frontier."
Philip Anderson, US Nobel Laureate, Times Higher Educational Supplement

"A serious, scrupulous book that remains sober at intellectually intoxicating altitudes. Complexity is already quantifying the sort of correspondences previously reserved for poets and painters."
Colin Greenland, New Scientist

"A readable, thoughtful, and insightful report on the private Einstein … the authors achieve a number of unique and important insights, some of which touch upon the most significant question of any scientific biography: how did this person achieve his or her scientific contributions?"
David Cassidy, Science

"In their lucid and scrupulously researched biography, Roger Highfield and Paul Carter reveal a very different Einstein. To their great credit, these startling revelations never diminish the man but only increase our sense of wonder that a mere human being, with all the faults, frailties and pettiness shared by the rest of us, could fashion a theory that revolutionizes our understanding of the universe."
J.G. Ballard, Daily Telegraph

"Their well researched and highly readable book offers a valuable new perspective on the messy and unfulfilled private life that was the backdrop to his extraordinary achievements."
Lord Rees, Sunday Telegraph

"Their picture of Einstein makes previous efforts seem thin and insubstantial."
Nigel Hawkes, The Times

Sunday Times top ten bestseller
New York Times notable book of the year, 1991

"This is an important book... I heartily commend this volume"
John Laurent, New Scientist

"It can be recommended as an instant guide to such mysteries as quantum theory, relativity and chaos."
John Gribbin, Times Educational Supplement

"A life decoded delves into a controversial area of science and really reveals the trials and tribulations of working on some of the most significant advances of our time. It's a fascinating and unique explanation of leading genomic scientist J. Craig Venter's relation to the genome project." On being shortlisted for the Royal Society's Science Book Prize

"A Life Decoded is a brilliant book. Beautifully written, it is not only the most gripping but also the most important scientist's autobiography since James Watson's own Double Helix." Terence Kealey, Sunday Telegraph

"The personalities and machinations involved in Big Science make this an engaging read."
Kirkus Reviews

"This is well worth reading for the fascinating perspective it offers on one of the major scientific discoveries of all time."
Publishers Weekly

"He has written a wonderfully original work that captures the whole of his life, from a wild 1950s boyhood in California, through harrowing military service in Vietnam to his current programme to produce the world's first "synthetic organism" from laboratory chemicals... An award to Venter for his pioneering work on DNA sequencing is overdue - the delay may reflect the outdated bad-boy image he retains among some sections of the scientific establishment. Eventually the Nobel committee will have to recognise that Venter, for all his self-promotion, is no longer an isolated "maverick"."
Clive Cookson, Financial Times

"Well-written, fast-paced and full of interesting data, gossip - and score-settling... (the) media has called Venter many things: maverick, publicity hound, risk-taker, brash, controversial, genius, manic, rebellious, visionary, audacious, arrogant, feisty, determined, provocative. His autobiography shows that they are all justified."
Jan Witkowski, Nature

"A Life Decoded is a page-turner throughout... a remarkable story, taking us from his experiences as a medic in Vietnam to his current dream of creating "synthetic" life."
Peter Aldhous, New Scientist