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“... Early in the first volume of his collected papers, the evolutionary biologist W.D. Hamilton retells a Victorian joke. Two ladies are conversing, and one says: ‘Have you heard that Mr Darwin says we are all descended from an ape?’ The other replies: ‘Oh, my dear – that surely cannot be true! … But, if it should be true, let us pray that at least it will not become generally known!’ Hamilton sees this response as being as relevant today as it was then: people have ‘an instant, automatic wish for both the evidence and the idea to go away’ because evolutionary notions ‘have the unfortunate property of being solvents of a vital societal glue ...”

“... least in these insects. The first major advance in sex ratio theory after Fisher was made by W.D. Hamilton, who realised that Fisher had made a tacit assumption about the breeding system. The nature of the assumption is best seen by considering an exception. Suppose that the offspring of a particular female always mate among themselves, brother with ...”

“... of the group to which the individual belongs. That question was effectively disposed of by W.D. Hamilton and others, who showed how altruism, as a strategy transmitted either genetically or culturally (or both), can spread in a population provided that its carriers are more likely than they would be by chance to receive a benefit from those with whom they ...”

“... selection acts – individual, population, species or ecosystem. At almost the same time, W.D. Hamilton raised another question about how natural selection acts. He pointed out that if a gene were to cause its possessor to sacrifice its life in order to save the lives of several relatives, there might be more copies of the gene present afterwards than if ...”

“... insight, but emphasises that the modern theory of kin selection and sterile castes is due to W.D. Hamilton, with an important extension by Trivers and Hare. This approach adds immensely to the value of such a monograph.Kin selection involves collateral gene descent which boosts the welfare of relatives, not necessarily direct offspring, who possess the same ...”

“... company, and by me: Joseph Brodsky, Tom Paulin and, most intimately though I knew him least, Ian Hamilton. When I sent him a copy of my first book, I realised I’d even purloined his initials for my title. I wasn’t of an age to have been reading, never mind submitting to, his magazines, The Review and The New Review, but when I started publishing around ...”

“... in a moment of rage; portions of some of his letters to Caroline Blackwood were transcribed by Ian Hamilton for his biography, but the letters themselves were stolen and have not resurfaced. Bishop’s letters to Lota de Macedo Soares were destroyed after Lota’s suicide. But there remain many unpublished letters by Bishop and Lowell. An edition of Bishop’s ...”