Book description
The Origin of Species is the most famous book in science but its
stature tends to obscure the genius of Charles Darwin's 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 Darwin's other island, its countryside as
much, or more, a place of discovery than had been the Galapagos. It
traces the great naturalist's second journey across its modest
landscape: 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. See www. ystevejones. com
