This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin

By Emma Darwin

2019

First Published

4.09

Average Rating

276

Number of Pages

8H25M

Audio Length

'A masterclass in how writers have to learn to fail and fail again before they have a hope of producing something like this book' Kathryn Hughes, The Mail on Sunday 'Wise, witty, and informative' The Literary Review 'Charming' The Spectator 'Refreshingly frank, witty, eloquent memoir-cum-biography-cum-rumination.' Saga Magazine 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.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. ‘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 ‘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

Avg Rating

4.09

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

36%

4 STARS

39%

3 STARS

21%

2 STARS

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Emma Darwin

Author · 5 books

Emma Darwin was born and brought up in London, but has also spent time in both Manhattan and Brussels, and later studied Drama at university. Her debut novel The Mathematics of Love (Headline Review) is probably the only novel ever to have been simultaneously listed for both the Commonwealth Writers Best First Book, and the RNA Novel of the Year prizes. Her bestselling second novel, A Secret Alchemy (Headline Review), was part of a PhD at Goldsmiths, which explored the writing of historical fiction. Her first non-fiction book, Getting Started in Writing Historical Fiction (John Murray Learning/Teach Yourself), was published in March 2016. She has been helping writers for over a decade, and has particular interests in historical fiction and creative non-fiction; she taught Creative Writing for the Open University for several years, has worked with academic writing as an RLF Fellow at Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Music, and blogs at This Itch of Writing.