Review

"This fascinating work should appeal to historians of science." Choice

"King-Hele has become the leading authority on Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin...King-Hele illuminates both lives simultaneously." Journal of the History of Biology

Book Description

This little book is not a narrative biography, but rather a series of illuminating insights into Erasmus Darwin's life and work, with quotations from letters and candid comments by Charles Darwin about his books. Charles always writes well, but here he is free of the inhibitions of scientific convention, and you feel you are really meeting him in person. There are witticisms and outspoken comments, such as 'they are too ignorant to be able to see their own ignorance', and his condemnation of slavery as 'this great national crime'.