The call to Stockholm -- A difficult act to follow -- From the provinces to the big city -- War work for the Royal Navy -- Biology at the strangeways -- Helical molecules at the Cavendish Laboratory -- The DNA fiasco -- Two pitchmen in search of a helix -- A most important discovery -- Publishing the model -- Employed by the John Wayne of crystallography -- The genetic code -- Preaching the central dogma -- Crick as experimentalist attacking the genetic code -- The excitement of the sixties -- Speaking out on controversial subjects -- Biological complexity -- Leaving the "old country" -- Taking the plunge: neuroscience -- From the searchlight to the soul -- Eighty-eight years