In this book C.P. Snow writes portraits, or 'intellectual biographies' of Rutherford, the mathematician G. H. Hardy, H.G. Wells, Einstein, Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Robert Frost,Dag Hammarskjold, Stalin.The essays are given a special perspective by the fact that Snow knew personally many of his subjects.

The most fascinating are those on Rutherford, Hardy, and Einstein.The essays are informed by Snow's great intelligence and considerable descriptive powers. Above all they are made such compelling reading because of Snow's knowledge of human character.