The late Desmond King-Hele's final biography of Erasmus Darwin bequeathed an intriguing puzzle. In 1864 Charles Darwin wrote to his friend Joseph Hooker that he suspected the widow of their former colleague Dr Francis Boott (Vice-President of the Linnean Society) was an illegitimate granddaughter of Erasmus'. Hooker confirmed he had heard there had been a close association and helped to fuel the suspicion by describing the old lady's features in quasi-Darwinian terms. Desmond was intrigued but judiciously unconvinced, bequeathing the…

Stuart Blake was born and brought up on a farm in Patagonia within sight of the Straits of Magellan, and, having studied Genetics at St Andrew’s University (graduated in 1987), he offers a different perspective on Darwin’s time in Patagonia and the Galapagos. "I have faced the same winds that caused Fitzroy’s predecessor to shoot himself – messily – having fallen into a deep depression after failing to sail the Straits; I have ridden with gauchos, drunk mate, slept in…

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