Science communication is a basic skill for all scientists, even if it is mostly performed for a restricted academic audience. Nonetheless, all scientists must also write for broader audiences – and some have turned this into an art form. Such practitioners of accessible ‘scientific writing’ have a slightly different task to the ‘science writing’ of writer/journalists who report on, rather than from within, the field. Popular scientific writing engages not just the general public, but also other scientists. Such long-form writing often generates new insights and knowledge by synthesising broad fields of fragmented or isolated disciplinary components, thereby creating new paradigms. These are often the books that change the way we see, think about, and study the world.