In recent years, many more biographies of chemists seem to have been published than ever before. One reason, of course, may be that there are many more chemists and, in fact, it is possible that there are actually fewer biographies published per capita in the chemical world. The character of those I have read in recent years is quite variable. For example, recent biographies of Linus Pauling are somewhat derivative, in the "gotcha" style of modern journalism; in contrast, the books in the ACS autobiographical Profiles series are, for the most part, rather specialized reviews of the individual's chemical contributions, usually made more generally interesting by numerous photographs of the individual, his family, and colleagues.

The Leffek biography of Sir Christopher Ingold is quite different. While clearly written with reverence for its subject, it is a remarkably thorough account of the life of a very important figure in what I prefer to call "organophysical" chemistry. What I mean by this term is the application of physical methods to organic chemistry, as opposed to "physical organic", which I take to be the application of synthetic methodology to prepare compounds with structures designed to test critical concepts of physical theory. What Ingold brought to the table, most particularly, was the use of reaction kinetics to study the mechanisms of nitration, displacement, and elimination reactions, and of sophisticated spectroscopy to define the ground and first excited states of benzene. The mechanistic work is well known and has become a large part of basic organic chemistryso much so that it is possible and ironic that in not many more years, Hughes and Ingold might not be identified by name in elementary organic texts in juxtaposition with their contributions, even though the names of Hoffmann and Saytzeff are likely to persist.

An extraordinary difficulty for the Ingold biographer was that there was no treasure trove of Ingold papers available to analyze. I remember some years ago receiving a letter from Professor Leffek asking if I had anything useful for him in my own files (unfortunately very little, although I remember Ingold well). Despite this, the author persisted and there is more than ample detail on the whole of Ingold's life without the sort of "docufication" that, in my view, marred some of the Pauling biographies. The accounts of how the University College Chemistry Department operated in Ingold's time are detailed and very interesting.

Many book reviews are popular because they give you so much information that you can talk about the book intelligently without ever having to read it, but I am not going to do that for you here. If you are interested in organic chemistry, this is a wonderful book to read because it places Ingold and his work in a rich historical context of the English and continental chemistry of his time. However, the context is a bit parochial in that it pretty much stops at ocean's edge. The index has one reference each to S. Winstein and L. P. Hammett, but none to J. B. Conant and P. D. Bartlettwho, I think, did as much for reaction mechanism studies in organic chemistry as Ingold. One who has read Derek Davenport's wonderful essay (Chemtech 1987, 526) on the "invective effect" in organic chemistry will no doubt be surprised to find H. C. Brown absent from the index as well.

So, I suggest you get Leffek's book and find the answers to questions such as: What was Ingold doing on the Isle of Wight? Why did Ingold mix 39.2 gallons of ethyl alcohol into a ton of ethyl iodoacetate? What was Ingold doing at Cassel Cyanide and how can you save yourself when your clothes are dampened with a spill of liquid HCN? What was the Thorpe­Ingold valence-deflection hypothesis? How did being gassed with phosgene influence Ingold's marriage? Who won in the monumental battle of often harsh words between Sir Robert Robinson and cohorts versus C. K. Ingold and his supporters that produced some 45 rather juicy communications in three years? What was Ingold doing at Leeds? How did the fruitful 33-year collaboration with E. D. Hughes come about, and what was Hughes like as a person? How did Ingold determine the symmetrical structure of benzene? What did Ingold do during World War II? Why did Ingold never receive a Nobel Prize? How was Ingold connected to the razor-blade wars between the Gillette and Wilkinson companies? All of the above and more can be learned by reading Leffek's book. I highly recommend it!