This is the story of how a cocktail of extraordinary traits were combined to create us, human beings. Fusing epic science with the drama of individual lives, it is the tale of everyone on the planet today. The story starts in east Africa where apes first walked on two legs. Four million years later, half a dozen different species of human populated Africa but eventually Homo erectus was to dominate this world and be the first ape-man to colonize elsewhere. This book follows the changing lives of each species, ending with our last rival, the physically powerful Neanderthals, and suggesting that it was through pure good fortune that Homo sapiens survivied to rule the world. Our story is told as continuous narrative with feature boxes explaining the evolutionary science and the archeological finds, and easy-to-use fact boxes on each of the species.