Matthew White Ridley, 5th Viscount Ridley, is a British science writer, journalist and businessman. He is known for his writings on science, the environment, and economics, and has been a regular contributor to The Times newspaper. Ridley was chairman of the UK bank Northern Rock from 2004 to 2007, during which period it experienced the first run on a British bank in 130 years. He resigned, and the bank was bailed out by the UK government; this led to its nationalisation.
Ridley is a libertarian, and a staunch supporter of Brexit. He inherited the viscountcy in February 2012 and was a Conservative hereditary peer from February 2013, with an elected seat in the House of Lords, until his retirement in December 2021.
Books in order of publication:
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, 1993
The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation, 1996
Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, 1999
Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, & What Makes Us Human, 2003
The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns on Nurture, 2004
Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code, 2006
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, 2010
The Evolution of Everything: How Ideas Emerge, 2015
How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom, 2020
Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19 – 2021
Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin’s Strangest Idea, 2025
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