Book description
In these extraordinary poems, using multiple viewpoints - from Darwin
himself, to his beloved wife Emma, and even, at one point, the
orangutang at London Zoo - Ruth Padel illuminates the development of
Darwin's thought, the drama of the discovery of evolution, and the
fluctuating emotions of Darwin the husband, the naturalist and the
tender father, in a powerful tribute to her famous ancestor.
Shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Poetry Award.
Ruth Padel is a prize-winning poet, Fellow of both the Royal Society
of Literature and Zoological Society of London, and first Resident
Writer at Somerset House, London. Her poetry collections include
Rembrandt Would Have Loved You,
Voodoo Shop
and
The Soho Leopard,
all
shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. She has also published two
much-loved books on reading contemporary poetry,
52 Ways of Looking
at a Poem
and
The Poem and the Journey,
and a highly acclaimed nature book,
Tigers in Red Weather
, shortlisted in the US for the Kiriyama Prize
.
