Matt Ridley's books have sold over a million copies, been translated into 31 languages and won several awards. His books include The Red Queen, Genome, The Rational Optimist, How Innovation Works and most recently Birds, Sex and Beauty.

Viral: the search for the origin of Covid-19 was co-authored with Alina Chan.

Ridley sat in the House of Lords between 2013 and 2021 and served on the Science and Technology Select Committee and the Artificial Intelligence Select Committee.

He was founding chairman of the International Centre for Life in Newcastle. He has been a columnist for the Times, Telegraph and Wall Street Journal.

Ridley is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.