Steve Jones, Darwin's Island

This book proved to be an ideal follow-up to reading Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle. It covers the research Darwin carried out after he returned after five years on the expedition: he never left the UK again. Jones seems to have read all of Darwin’s many other books, including, it would appear, his several books on barnacles. To have an expert on present-day genetics taking Darwin’s work seriously and describing its relevance – what’s not to like? 

It was an interesting idea to base this book, not about the Origin or Voyage of the Beagle, but on the Darwin books that most people haven’t read: the books Darwin wrote about biology from his back garden, no fewer than eleven titles (and some of them in multiple volumes). Darwin could never be accused o not being sufficiently productive.   

It turns out I am reading the fourth book in a series by Jones. The first was Almost Like a Whale (1999), a modern retelling of The Origin of Species, followed by Y: The Descent of Men (2002), based on Descent of Man (1871). The third volume was Coral: A Pessimist In Paradise (2008), describing Darwin's work on coral reefs. 

As you can see from the titles of Jones’ other books, descriptive titles are not his speciality. What does this book cover? The serendipitous chapter titles mean we have to guess what each chapter is about. For the assistance of future readers, here is my look-up table for the chapter headings – giving a further indication of Darwin’s vast range of interests:

Chapter One	The Queen’s Orang-Utan	The Descent of Man
Two	The Green Tyrannosaurs	Insectivorous Plants
Three	Shock and Awe	The Expression of the Emotions in Man and other Animals
Four	The Triumph of the Well-bred	Orchids and The Effects of Cross and Self- fertilisation the Vegetable Kingdom The Different Forms of Flowers
Five	The Domestic Ape	The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication
Six	The Thinking Plant	The Movement  … of Climbing Plants (1875), The Power of Movement in Plants (1880) [covering hops and other climbing plants]
Seven	A Perfect Fowl	Books on Barnacles (four volumes)
Eight	Where the Bee sniffs	Orchids (1862)
Nine	The Worms Crawl In	The Formation of Vegetable Mould

Clearly Jones has fluency as a writer. I got the impression this book could have been twice as long without the author drawing breath. Many of the insights were startling and fascinating. Yet, although the book was a terrifically entertaining read, it had limitations. Firstly, the book contained no references. Secondly, and linked to the first, it makes some assertions that even to my less-scientific mind look very questionable. And without references, I am forced to challenge what Mr Jones states. In fact, some of the things he says are so alarming that I would not reprint the book as it stands. 

These assertions typically appear when Jones brings his argument up to the present day.  For example, describing present-day Kent, formerly a centre of oyster and salmon fishing: 

Bucolic pursuits have been replaced by that invaluable product, “services”, which account for three-quarters of the country’s contribution to the nation’s wealth … The flow of people, power and cash has carved up the county’s landscape with motorways, rail links and webs of power lines.” [p299] 

Where did all this come from? What does it have to do with evolution? Is Jones a closet rural-England protector? Why complain about services, when they represent such a large proportion of the UK’s wealth? 

At several points in the book, the author’s casual tone makes it not quite clear what he is intending – and I don’t like some of the implications. For example, on page 137: 

For both plants and animals, sex usually involves another party. Almost always, he or she must choose … from a pool of potential mates. This calls for hard decisions. Some are obvious: whites tend to marry whites, and blacks, black…All this means that for any man or woman the number of possible partners is far smaller than it might be. 

Is Jones saying (I hope not) that for whites to marry blacks is not possible? I don’t think he means that, but that is what his phrasing implies. Other infelicitous phrasing includes:

The belief that the children of cousins are bound to be unfit … still fuels a jaundiced view of the joys of sex within the household. [p119] 

I find this kind of misplaced humour very uncomfortable. Is he suggesting as a good Darwinian that incest is not advisable on biological grounds? Or is he dismissing the incest taboo as a kind of harmless social prejudice?

It is where Jones brings the argument up to the present day that I feel most uncomfortable. 

Minor issues

Firstly, inevitably, the book is already out of date. Although Jones writes perceptively about the obesity crisis in the West, in other areas he seems to be curiously unaware. 

For the most part, Jones writes fluently, but I noticed what looked like a reach for the thesaurus, for example referring to Darwin as a savant: “The savant’s attraction to earthworms ‘[p264]. 

So, in conclusion, a great read, particularly the chapters on earthworms and on insectivorous plants, but at its weakest when the argument is extended to present-day humanity.