Crystal Clear
The Autobiographies of Sir Lawrence and Lady Bragg

Crystal Clear takes you behind the scenes in the life of one of the most prominent scientists of the twentieth century, William Lawrence Bragg (WLB) - an innovative genius, who together with his father, William Henry Bragg (WHB) founded and developed a whole new branch of science, X-ray Crystallography. The main body of the text contains the hitherto unpublished autobiographies of both WLB and his wife, Alice. Alice Bragg was a public figure in her own right. She was Mayor of Cambridge and National Chairman of the Marriage Guidance Council among other roles. She and WLB were as different as chalk and cheese. Their autobiographies complement each other to give a rounded picture of the real personalities behind their public appearance. They write of their travels, their family life, their friends and their joys and sorrows. They write most of all about each other. Their younger daughter, Patience Thomson, provides anecdotes and vignettes, bringing her parents to life. She has also included extracts from previously unpublished letters and from articles which Alice Bragg wrote for National newspapers. The result is an unusual insight into the lives of two distinguished people. The two accounts reveal a fascinating interaction between these two characters, neither of whom could have achieved on this scale without the other. There is an underlying love story here which humanises and transforms. This is a unique book, adopting an original viewpoint, which will take the reader far beyond the scope of a normal biography.

A.M. Glazer is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, UK, and Visiting Professor at the University of Warwick, UK. He is also Vice-President of the International Union of Crystallography. His PhD research between 1965 and 1968 was under the supervision of Kathleen Lonsdale at University College London, UK, working on the crystallography of organic mixed crystals. In 1968-1969 he was a Fellow at Harvard University, USA, and then from 1969 to 1976 he was at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, UK. In 1976 he was appointed Lecturer in Physics at the Clarendon Laboratory Oxford and as an Official fellow and Tutor at Jesus College Oxford, UK. Glazer's research has mainly been in understanding the relationship between physical properties of crystals and their structures. He is perhaps best known for his classification system for tilted octahedra in perovskites. Patience Thomson is the daughter of William Lawrence Bragg and Alice Grace Jenny Bragg. She is the Co-Founder and former Chairman of the publishing company Barrington Stoke, producing books for less able readers. Previously she was Principle of Fairley House School in London, UK.