A brilliant memoir from the inventor of the World Wide Web. I was worried the book would be too technical for me to understand, but it was explained clearly and although I wouldn’t pass an exam on the material, I understood enough to be engaged. It was while working at CERN that Sir Tim, whose parents were computer programmers, had the idea of putting together two already-invented technologies – the internet and hyperlinking – into the concept of the web.

It was very interesting to read about the exciting early days of the web and how the protocols were developed. It hasn’t all turned out quite how he envisioned – he is in favour of a free, open, decentralised, collaborative web, with technology that works for each person’s benefit to improve their lives. He strongly advocates for everyone to be in control of their data, rather than the corporations. I didn’t quite buy into his vision for AI agents helping us, even if we can control what they have access to and what they are trained on. Not everyone wants to rely on their devices to organise their lives, or to link their various data to gain a bigger picture. Something I liked about this book was that Sir Tim is very concerned with praising anyone who has helped positively shape the web into what we have today. Many of the developers did that for free and some of the inventions were superseded, but people still deserve to be credited. It was also refreshing to read an optimistic book, even if it did seem a little repetitive towards the end. I’d definitely recommend it.

Published by Macmillan, 2025.