Following the Beagle voyage, Darwin settled down to a quiet married life, relying on correspondence to gather facts.
He wrote thousands of letters as he gathered facts to support his still-secret theory.
Long before anyone had heard of evolution, Darwin produced four enormous books on barnacles, which helped establish his credentials (even his most committed opponents acknowledged that he couldn’t be ignored). And the books were also Darwin’s attempts to answer some complex questions about sex that will recur throughout the lectures.
Jim is Visiting Gresham Professor in the History of Science.
He is Professor of the History of Science at the University of Sussex and specialises in Victorian natural history and the modern genetics and has presented programmes for BBC Radio 4.
Professor Endersby's lecture series are as follows:
2020/21 Darwin's Descent: Monkeys, Orchids and Myths
2019/20 Utopian Gardens
All lectures by the Visiting Professor in the History of Science can be accessed here.
