We have updated our Privacy Policy Please take a moment to review it. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy.

Darwin's Island

Samuel Johnson Prize, 2009

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9780349121413

Price: £10.99

ON SALE: 1st April 2010

Genre: Mathematics & Science

Select a format:

ebook

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

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.

What's Inside

Read More Read Less

Reviews

** 'Steve Jones who in ALMOST LIKE A WHALE successfully rewrote Darwin in the 21st century, reminds us in DARWIN'S ISLAND that Darwin did actually write 19 other books which are full of insight into the human condition and into the flora and fauna of Britain - hence his title. If you were to read one new book on Darwin this year, this should be it
Christopher Hudson, DAILY MAIL
** 'Darwin's theory of evolution is often imagined to be the result of his voyage to the Galapagos Islands aboard HMS Beagle. But as Steve Jones points out at the start of his enthralling book, he spent only five weeks in the Galapagos, whereas for 40 yea
John Carey SUNDAY TIMES
** 'Wow, Goodness me! Fancy that! Well I never! This is what you will be saying at every other page of Steve Jones's brilliant, remarkable, profound and deeply unsettling book. Your reactions otherwise will be shock and awe: shock at how far down the road to hell humankind has pushed its handcart, and awe at the light way Jones wears his formidable learning. If there is one book to be read at this bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of his The Origin of Species, then this must be it
Andy Barclay IRISH TIMES
Darwin's Island fills in the details of four decades that followed his five years on HMS Beagle. A professor of genetics and a gifted writer who has already successfully updated Darwin for the 21st century in an earlier book, Steve Jones is ideally place
Roger Highfield DAILY TELEGRAPH