An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley Family

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE

''A masterpiece of biography ... a vivid account of a family at the heart of some of the great cultural shifts of the modern era'' John Gray, New Statesman

''The whole of British intellectual life seems accessible through some branch of this sprawling family tree'' The Guardian

In his early twenties, poor, depressed, stranded in the Coral Sea on the seemingly endless survey mission of HMS Rattlesnake, hopelessly in love with the young Englishwoman Henrietta Heathorn, Thomas Henry Huxley was a nobody. And yet together he and Henrietta would return to London and go on to found one of the great intellectual and scientific dynasties of their age.

The Huxley family through four generations profoundly shaped how we all see ourselves, as individuals and as a species, one among many. They worked as scientists, novelists, mystics, film-makers, poets and - perhaps above all - as public lecturers, educators and explainers.

Their speciality was evolution in all its forms. But perhaps their greatest subject was themselves. Alison Bashford''s engaging and original new book interweaves the Huxleys'' momentous public achievements with their private triumphs and tragedies. The result is the history of a family, but also a history of humanity grappling with its place in nature. This book shows how much we owe - for better or worse - to the unceasing curiosity, self-absorption and enthusiasms of a small, strange group of men and women.

''This is history with the engaging intimacy of a novel. Bashford brilliantly marries intellectual history with the story of four generations in a literary tour de force'' Professor Jim Secord, author of Visions of Science