who were john and jean dawkins? >> they were my parents -- well my mother is still alive. my father was a biologist. his career began similar to mine. we went to the same sort of school and then he read at oxford. he did research, i did research and he went into the british colonial which was something one did in those days and was posted in malawi in central east africa and then was called to fight in the war against the italians and i was born around that time. my mother was an art student and they had a shared love of wild things, wildflowers. so i was brought up in an atmosphere of the scientific inquiry and of love of nature. >> and my parents had no interest in religion, but i was sent to the schools and would have loved to. that is what happened it was quite hard to find a school that wasn't in some way. >> when did you lose that connection? >> i suppose finally at the age of 16 when i was at school i had my doubts. i first of all had my doubts at the age of nine when my mother -- there were lots of different religions and when i was brought up that wasn't the only

. >> who are john were john and jean dawkins. >> they were my parents.and they -- my father was a biologist. his career began with schooling that was rather the same time as mine. he did research, i did research. >> and then she had this for a while and i was brought up along that time. my mother was an art student. they have a shared love of wild things brought up in an atmosphere with the love of nature. >> my parents had spent part of this time in religion. again, things that had happened. but in some ways changed it. >> when did you lose that connection? >> i suppose finally at the age of about 16. when i was at school. but i have my doubts at the age of about nine years old. especially when i was brought up in this timeframe. >> when you asked her parents about this, how did they respond >> i think my mother taught me many stories and what she believed. then when i went to school, i learned about it more and. >> how did this come about as a book? >> will, about 10 years before i wrote it in 1966, i was asked by my boss about giving a lecture. he was

. >> who were john and jean dawkins? >> john and gene were my parents. they were well my mother is still alive. my father was a biologist. he did -- at oxford so his career became similarly to mine. we went to the same school, rather expensive english schools and then he went to oxford where ice i've read zoology he did research and i did research and he would intuit which is colonial service which was a thing in those days and we don't anymore of course. i asked malawi it's central east africa and then he was called up to fight in the war in abyssinia i was worn around that time. my mother was an art student from a cornish family and they had a shared love of wild things, wildflowers and they both knew all the wildflowers so i was brought up in an atmosphere of scientific inquiry and love of nature. >> were you brought up in the anglican church? >> my parents had no interest in religion. i was brought up in anglican schools. that was the thing that only happened. it's quite hard to find a school that wasn't in some way churchy. >> and when did you lose