Do lemmings commit suicide? : beautiful hypotheses and ugly facts

This text is a personal history and apology, written by a distinguished small mammal ecologist, for a life in science spent working on problems for which no final dramatic conclusion was reached.

Included in the book are some anecdotes and history about Charles Elton and the pioneering work at the Bureau of Animal Population at Oxford University, from which much of modern population ecology has grown, and insights on the philosophy and practice of science.