Richard Morrison * The Times * Blending cutting-edge science with lyrical storytelling, Rebecca Wragg Sykes paints a detailed portrait of our enigmatic relatives.

If you read only one book about the Neanderthals, read this one - except that if the next 20 years provide as many revelations about our ancestors as the past 20 have done, she will need to produce just as weighty a second volume. Professor Brian Cox, Physicist and TV presenter Rebecca Wragg-Sykes's fact-packed but highly readable book puts us right with a superbly authoritative guided tour of much new evidence. Kindred is a beautifully written exploration of our fast-developing understanding of Neanderthals and their culture and a compelling insight into how modern science is revealing the secrets of an extinct species who, for 350 thousand years before Homo Sapiens became dominant, inhabited a world as wide and rich as the Roman Empire. Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens * The New York Times * Beautiful, evocative, authoritative. Important reading not just for anyone interested in these ancient cousins of ours, but also for anyone interested in humanity. Kindred does for Neanderthals what Sapiens did for us, revealing a deeper, more nuanced story where humanity itself is our ancient, shared inheritance.

Planning, co-operation, altruism, craftsmanship, aesthetic sense, imagination, perhaps even a desire for transcendence beyond mortality. Much of what defines us was also in Neanderthals, and their DNA is still inside us. Above all, they were successful survivors for more than 300,000 years, during times of massive climatic upheaval. She reveals them to be curious, clever connoisseurs of their world, technologically inventive and ecologically adaptable. Rebecca Wragg Sykes uses her experience at the cutting-edge of Palaeolithic research to share our new understanding of Neanderthals, shoving aside clichés of rag-clad brutes in an icy wasteland. Since their discovery more than 160 years ago, Neanderthals have metamorphosed from the losers of the human family tree to A-list hominins. ’ Yuval Noah Harari Kindred is the definitive guide to the Neanderthals. 'Beautiful, evocative, authoritative.' Professor Brian Cox 'Important reading not just for anyone interested in these ancient cousins of ours, but also for anyone interested in humanity.

Rebecca wragg sykes kindred