There are no required books for this course, and the lectures are self-contained and based on a wide range of source material.

That said, excellent non-technical introductions to astrobiology are given in Life in the Universe by Lewis Dartnell (Oneworld, 2007) and Astrobiology: A Very Short Introduction by David Catling (Oxford University Press, 2013).

It would be well worth everyone taking this course making the effort to read at least one of these two short books.

A more detailed introductory astrobiology textbook that covers essentially all the material in the course is An Introduction to Astrobiology, 3rd edition edited by David Rothery, Iain Gilmour and Mark Sephton (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

An excellent introduction to the evolution of Earth as a habitable planet has been given by Tim Lenton and Andrew Watson in Revolutions that made the Earth (Oxford University Press, 2011). I think that all would-be astrobiologists would benefit from reading this book!

A very comprehensive and up-to-date summary of the whole field of astrobiology can be found in the Handbook of Astrobiology edited by Vera Kolb (CRC Press, 2019). This is a very large and expensive book, but the Birkbeck library has a reference copy.

Nick Lane's books Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution (Profile Books, 2009) and The Vital Question: Why is Life the Way it Is? (Profile Books, 2015) give excellent summaries of current thinking on the origin and early evolution of life, as does Franklin Harold's book In Search of Cell History (University of Chicago Press, 2014).

A critical examination of palaeontological evidence for early life on Earth, with detailed discussion of the techniques and controversies of the field, has been given by David Wacey in Early Life on Earth: A Practical Guide (Springer, 2009).

For background on extremophiles, have a look at Life at the Limits by David Wharton (CUP, 2002). For an excellent guide specifically to the biology of hydrothermal vents, I can throughly recommend The Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents by Cindy Lee Van Dover, Princeton University Press (2000).

Students wishing a broad overview of biochemistry can probably still not do any better than The Chemistry of Life by Steven Rose (New Edition, Penguin, 1999).

The Web is a good source for up-to-date information and stunning photographs -- check the the Useful links.