Darwin's Island: The Galapagos in the Garden of England

Description

The Origin of Species may be the most famous book in science but its stature tends to obscure much of Charles Darwin s other works. His visit to the Galapagos lasted just five weeks and on his return he never left Britain again. Darwin spent forty years working on the plants, animals and people of his native land and wrote over six million words on topics as different as dogs, insect-eating plants, orchids, earthworms, apes and human emotion. Together they laid the foundations of modern biology. In this beautifully written, witty and illuminating book, Steve Jones explores the domestic Darwin, tracing the great naturalist s journey across Britain: a voyage not of the body, but of the mind.

Steve Jones is Professor of Genetics at University College London and the president of the Galton Institute. He delivered the BBC Reith Lectures in 1991, appears frequently on radio and television and is a regular columnist for the Daily Telegraph.

a meandering, but ultimately enlightening, natural-history lesson.' - The Economist