Author:Adrian Desmond,James R Moore
This biography of Charles Darwin attempts to capture the private unknown life of the real man - the gambling and gluttony at Cambridge, his gruelling trip round the globe, his intimate family life, worries about persecution and thoughts about God. Central to all of this, his pioneering efforts on the theory of evolution now that recent studies have overturned the commonplace views of Darwin that have held for more than a century.
A valuable and fascinating contribution to the debate on man's relation to nature. Even for those who disagree, the wit of Jeffrey Masson's argument and the thousand little facts and anecdotes he serves with it make this book a pleasure.
—— Mark Kurlansky, Author of CodLessons in fatherhood, challengingly and devastatingly told
—— Kirkus ReviewsGritty and entertaining
—— Sunday TelegraphFowles' language is strong, green, discursive, related throughout to his own life and memories
—— VogueBateson and Martin have delivered what others have claimed to provide: a solid, signposted road out of the trench war between nature and nurture
—— Marek Kohn , IndependentWith a clarity of style that belies the complexity of the subject, Patrick Bateson and Paul Martin conduct us through the strategic highways adn tactical byways of individual life history
—— Richard Dawkins'Exhilarating'
—— Melvyn Bragg , Observer'As enthralling in its own way as was Darwin's original'
—— Kenan Malik , Independent on Sunday