The Sunday Times bestselling take-down of the genius myth, exploring the surprising history of invention, inspiration and distortion by which some lives are elevated to 'greatness' - and the unexpected consequences for us all. 'This is the book we need right now' CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ 'Lucid, funny and fascinating' ADAM BUXTON The tech disruptor. The tortured poet. The rebellious scientist. The monstrous artist. You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius. You can also tell who it excludes, who it enables, and what it is prepared to tolerate. Taking us from the Renaissance Florence of Leonardo da Vinci to the Floridian rocket launches of Elon Musk's SpaceX, Helen Lewis unravels a word that we all use - without really questioning what it means - and asks if the modern idea of genius is distorting our view of the world. 'Brilliant, timely and compulsively readable' OLIVER BURKEMAN 'A provocative, witty book' TLS

Details

ISBN13: 9781529967661
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 352
Edition:
Publication Date: 20 Oct 2026
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 19.7(H)x12.7(L)x2.3(W)234
Weight (gm): 234

Author Biography

Helen Lewis (Afterword by, Author) Helen Lewis is a staff writer at The Atlantic, based in London, who writes about politics and culture. Her first book, Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights, was a Sunday Times bestseller and a Guardian, Telegraph and Financial Times book of the year. She is the writer and presenter of the BBC podcast series The New Gurus and Helen Lewis Has Left the Chat, and co-host of Radio 4's Kafka vs Orwell and Strong Message Here. She won the 2024 Kukula Award for excellence in non-fiction book reviewing.

Reviews

A brilliant, timely and compulsively readable book. With her characteristic combination of deep reporting and lightness of touch, Helen Lewis shows how the idea of genius has warped our understanding of human creativity – and why people of vast accomplishment in one domain can prove so destructively clueless in others. -- OLIVER BURKEMAN
This is the book we need right now. Smart, funny and full of surprises, The Genius Myth takes aim at our cultish worship of Great Men. An indispensable companion to our times. -- CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ
Typically lucid, funny and fascinating. Not so much a debunking of "genius" as a highly entertaining exploration of why we want it to exist. -- Adam Buxton
Helen Lewis argues that "genius" lies in the eye of the beholder. Well, my own eyes saw genius when they read this book. -- Lucy Worsley
Lewis issues an effective call for a more carefully tempered understanding of genius in our precarious times, one that celebrates creativity, innovation, and achievement rather than idolizing a maker’s rarity and eccentricity. By degrees unsettling, amusing, and prescient; a much-needed audit of a consuming idea. * Kirkus Reviews *
[A] witty book… Lewis is brilliantly perceptive * Observer *
[A] provocative, witty book… [Lewis shows that] Genius is no longer synonymous with impunity. The myth is changing * Times Literary Supplement *
Original and painfully timely * Economist *
Lewis is such a well-read guide to intelligence… she is insightful on the loneliness of the very intelligent * Mail on Sunday *
[A] witty and timely critique of a perennially problematic concept * Financial Times *
[An] entertaining book * Literary Review *
Lewis is one of the best political journalists around… The Genius Myth…is equally lively and illuminating [as Difficult Women] * Critic *
Breezy and entertaining * Daily Telegraph *
It is when Lewis slows down and burrows into a subject that things get interesting. A case in point is her excellent investigation into how the "IQ Wars" took hold of scientists in the late 19th century, with devastating results. * Sunday Times *
Original * Economist, *Books of the Year* *
[A] hugely entertaining book * The York Press *