Matt Ridley (born in Northumberland in 1958) is a British science writer, journalist and, later, businessman. Trained in zoology at the University of Oxford, he writes about science, the environment and economics, and his books have brought evolutionary biology to readers with no specialist background.
After a doctorate on the mating system of the common pheasant, he joined The Economist in 1984, working first as science editor and then as its correspondent in Washington. He also wrote for The Daily Telegraph, and since 2013 he has contributed a weekly column to The Times. His first book, Warts and All (1989), examined the public image of George H. W. Bush, though Ridley himself has called it a bad book.
His popular works, such as The Red Queen (1993), which argues that sex evolved to protect us from constantly mutating parasites, and The Origins of Virtue (1996), on human cooperation, blend genetics, history and economics. Genome (1999), which looks at one gene from each of the 23 human chromosomes, was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. In The Rational Optimist (2010) and The Evolution of Everything (2015) he argues that exchange and gradual evolution explain much of human progress, a view that has drawn both praise and criticism for its free-market stance.
Between 2004 and 2007 he chaired the bank Northern Rock, which suffered a run and was later nationalised; he resigned in October 2007. He inherited the viscountcy in 2012 and sat as a Conservative hereditary peer in the House of Lords until he retired in 2021. His legacy lies mainly in popular science: his TED talk ‘When Ideas Have Sex’ (2010) has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.
Key works
- The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (1993): why sex may have evolved as a defence against constantly mutating parasites.
- Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters (1999): traces one gene from each of the 23 human chromosomes.
- Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human (2003): how genes and experience shape human free will and instinct.
- The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (2010): argues that trade and specialisation drive human prosperity.
Curiosities
A first book he now disowns
Warts and All (1989) follows how George H. W. Bush’s public image evolved during the 1988 US presidential election. Ridley has called it bad and no longer promotes it on his personal website.
A widely watched talk
His 2010 TED talk, ‘When Ideas Have Sex’, argues that exchange and specialisation produce new ideas. It has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.
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