| Abstract Note | This book takes you behind the scenes in the life of one of the most prominent scientists of the twentieth century, William Lawrence Bragg (WLB). He was an innovative genius who, together with his father, William Henry Bragg, founded and developed X-ray crystallography and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915. The main body of the book contains the hitherto unpublished autobiographies of both WLB and his wife, Alice, who was a public figure in her own right as Mayor of Cambridge and as National Chairman of Marriage Guidance, among other roles. She and WLB were as different as chalk and cheese. Together, their autobiographies 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; but, most of all, they write about each other. The first chapter, written by their younger daughter, uses anecdotes and vignettes to bring her parents to life and includes extracts from previously unpublished letters and from articles which Alice Bragg (nEe Hopkinson) wrote for national newspapers. |