Darwin's Island

About this book

The Origin of Species is the most famous book in science but its stature tends to obscure the genius of Charles Darwins other works. The Beagle voyage too occupied only five of the fifty years of his career. He spent only five weeks on the Galapagos and on his return never left Britain again. Darwin wrote six million words in nineteen books and innumerable letters on topics as different as dogs barnacles 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 the sage of Kent and brings his work up to date. Great Britain was Charles Darwins other island its countryside as much or more a place of discovery than had been the Galapagos. It traces the great naturalists second journey across its modest landscape: a voyage not of the body but of the mind.