Editions

Darwin

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9780099547051

  • Length: 160  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 10mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 117g

  • RRP: £9.99

Darwin

  • A Life in Poems

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.

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9780099547051

  • Length: 160  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 10mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 117g

  • RRP: £9.99

Reviews

  • Exquisite, precise and moving poems... Once I started reading I could not put it down until I had reached the end, and then I turned back for the pleasure of reading again

    Claire Tomalin

  • A fascinating, very rich book... With sympathy and grace, Padel moves deftly between between science, love and family; between the vast processes of evolution and a personal life

    Sean O'Brien

  • Daring and exciting, brilliant and subtle, stunning and deeply impressive... a lesson to biographers and poets alike

    Colm Toibin

  • Ambitious... shows her extraordinary talent

    Observer

  • Moments of Darwin's life captured with an economy and fluency that prosaic biographers might envy

    Spectator

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About the Author

Ruth Padel

Ruth Padel is a prize-winning poet, author of twelve acclaimed poetry collections and prose works including much-loved books on reading contemporary poetry, a travel-memoir on wild tiger conservation, and a study of the influence of Greek myth on rock music. Awards include a British Council Darwin Now Award, a Travel Bursary and Cholmondley Award from The Society of Authors, and First Prize in the National Poetry Competition. She is Professor of Poetry at King’s College London and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Ruth Padel

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