Am I a discriminating author?

Like all popular science authors, I get my fair share of communications from people sharing with me their new theories, whether they be an alternate theory of gravity or time, or disproving quantum physics. In the old days, these used to come as letters via my publisher - I particularly treasure examples with impressive diagrams such as the one illustrated.

These days, of course, they tend to be emails, but usually my response has to be that I'm a science writer, not a working physicist (or mathematician) and I'm simply not qualified to comment on their theories. Sometimes, though the email is rather different.

The other day, I got one asking me if I was intentionally filling one of my books with 'people of many diverse backgrounds'. It is true that some publishers will request more quotes from women or scientists, with diverse ethnic backgrounds, though when writing a primarily historical book, like my Ten Days in Physics that Shook the World, there is a limited pool of individuals to include. But that wasn't the case with the book I was being asked about. I certainly make sure that I select from the the full diverse set of options when quoting or referring to scientists, but none of the people in this particular book were selected because they weren't old white men, they were chosen because they had something relevant and interesting to say.

My correspondent noted that I had included a gay writer, a trans writer and African-American scientist - as it happens I have no idea about the sexuality of the people he mentions, but it surely is a big 'so what', especially as he had picked out just three from many individuals quoted.

I responded by pointing this out, and was sent back a wider range of individuals I'd quoted, one of whom seemed to have been singled out for being a muslim. I was a bit confused by some other examples, if the problem was 'unnecessary' diversity: he also appeared to criticise my choice of Lewis Carroll (for being the 'Jimmy Saville of the 19th century'), H. G. Wells for sleeping around and not liking Catholics, and Isaac Newton for being evil in his private life, conspiring to send Catholics to their deaths and stealing other people's ideas.

I don't think we should be selecting scientists or writers to quote (or avoiding them, for that matter) based on their private lives, my personal opinion of the character, their ethnicity or their sex - and I stand by everyone I quoted.

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