This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin

A writer’s journey through my family

Everybody knows about Charles Darwin, and many know about others in his family, from Erasmus Darwin and Tom Wedgwood, the first photographer, to composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and poet and radical John Cornford, the first Briton to be killed in the Spanish Civil War. But when Charles and Emma Darwin’s great-great-granddaughter, another Emma Darwin, tried to root her new novel in that history, the conflict between her complex heritage, and her own identity as a writer, became a battle that nearly killed her.

This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin takes the reader on a writer’s journey through the Darwin-Wedgwood-Galton clan, as seen through the lens of Emma’s struggle. Along the way, her wry, witty and honest memoir becomes a brave book about failure – and, above all, a book about writing and how stories are told. Richly illustrated with over 40 black and white images.

This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin is a book in the tradition of bestellers such as  Edmund de Waal’s The Hare with Amber Eyes and Christine Patterson’s The Art of Not Falling Apart.

‘Here is the humility, naked courage and fiercely intelligent understanding of what writing a novel takes, and costs, no matter what happens to the finished product. The prize is the dangerous, painful, unwanted knowledge that Emma won at the end of the journey.’ Jenn Ashworth, author of The Friday Gospels, Fell, etc, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster.

‘Wise, witty, and informative…’ The Literary Review

‘Refreshingly frank, witty, eloquent memoir-cun-biography-cum rumination’  Saga Magazine: Non-fiction book of the month.

‘Charming’ The Spectator

‘A witty masterclass’ Mail on Sunday

Available now from Waterstones, Hive, Foyles or Amazon

Hardback version:  Waterstones, Hive, Foyles or Amazon