I am posting this reply to one of the project supporters to hopefully answer any concerns...

On 8 Nov 2019, at 16:35, Rodger ************************* wrote:

Good Morning,

Helloooo eneryone, it's going really well. Some great interviews just arrived (I'll save the juicy surprises), and the words are flowing fast. Every day, in every way, getting closer to publication. Meanwhile, a slight detour with this, please,...

1. My nephew Ben (pictured), is cycling to Athens for charity - see here https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/diabecian?fbclid=IwAR387D2TdKPJWxNz70FwyVkeNQjfFioMQZGfrDz…

1. I’ve just boxsetted (is that the word?) the C4/All4 series of Rose Cartwright’s Pure. Not only am I immensely proud to be small part of the Unbound adventure, but I also feel vicariously excited to see Rose’s story, albeit vastly retold, stretching into another, far-reaching dimension. Undoubtedly, it’s a great example of publishing success. Writers bring ideas which they want to be heard. But…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR DAVID  -- THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE, IN PERSONALLY INFLUENCING FOR THE BETTER, THE LIVES OF MILLIONS, HUMAN AND OTHER ANIMALS

Seems appropriate to repost this update today.

https://unbound.com/books/the-dissent-of-man/updates/competition-answer-our-latest-contributor-to-the-book-is-sir-david-attenborough

News about the Darwin busts

I'm always very pleased to receive any of your questions regarding progress and arrangements. I fully appreciate that this book is so much longer in the waiting than probably every other publication working it's way into the light of day thanks to you, the people who ultimately make it possible, and Unbound, who put everything into place to allow it to happen. Suffice…

This is an older draught of a piece that I've used variously before, but it's useful to get an overview of my approach for Dissent of Man. 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

In an October article in Aeon Magazine (2015/6?), accompanied by a précis piece in The Guardian’s online Comment is Free – "Why Dawkins’ Humanists Remind Me…

♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀

Hello everyone

we inch ever closer to finishing the book. I'm thrilled with how putting it aside for a decade has improved the contents so much. Instead of an A-to-Z linear slog through the obvious, progress in neuroscience since the early noughties has made reinterpretation of peoples' outlooks very very interesting. And a bit complicated too. 

The lovely Unbounders have…

Update #2: apologies for indecisiveness, but with a slimmed down brief, and an idea for a new section in the DISSENT OF MAN, I'm definitely sticking with SUTTON WHO?



∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

________________________________________________________________________________

Update #1: whilst developing the new website, I returned to my original choice of name, only put off by…

##########################

Well, it's all excitement here in Naturalist Villas. This week, Charlie D., Hugo and I have been joined by a pet spider. He's a bit of a daredevil as you can see, but we’re hoping he’s made the right choice. Life is a trade-off of risks, as Charlie D. is wont to remind me. Hugo merely shrugs and sighs, and continues to ponder Yorick’s mortality. We’re a bit worried about…

Hello,



I had a day off writing yesterday, so what did I do? Went to a library and hung out with some natural history books. But it wasn't any old library, nor any old natural history books. It was the National Library on the George IV bridge, here in Edinburgh, which I'm surprised to find out isn't old at all. You assume living here that anything original-looking, comfortable in its place, well…

⋛⋋(‘’Θ’)⋌⋚⋛⋋(‘Θ‘’)⋌⋚

Hi folks, I'm just back from a quick family break to Fuerteventura, to charge up on Vit D and assimilate latest writings. I'll drop a few sketched out passages this way soon. Meanwhile, I'm no birder but couldn't help notice some quite lovely feathered friends on our trip, which I've retrospectively looked up and can feature above. All the best, Julian. Edinburgh.



[photo…

*__________________________*

Really digging this new website design. The project pages are a lot more fluid, and while the cartoon character was cute and always raised a feeling of bonhomie, the whole place now exudes a maturity befitting of the experienced and sagacious genre pioneers at Unbound. And capacious! Whoa, let me tell you something about capacious, mate. I only popped in here to drop…

Just a quick victory lap around this 100% sticker 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thank you everyone. 1624 days (over 4 years), but we got there. 

Hope you have good Christmas and New Year festivities.

Mine are certainly going to be :))

See you next year.

Julian

Edinburgh

Hello everyone, new and, and, er, well, there’s no two ways about it… veteran. We’ve been on this raft, drifting at the whim of the curren-sea for so many years, half of us now have grey beards, long enough to match Darwin, and that’s just the …… no, no, I’ll stop there. 

But, like the cavalry arriving in the nick of time on theiiiir…um… SEAhorses! yes that’s it. Galloping in on their seahorses…

This is a lovely review of Simon and Eugene's beautiful Darwin graphic novel. I like this paragraph in particular, noticing that most of the frames are chocker with information, but here he is in the forest for the first time, and speechless. Brilliant!

"There is something geeky, too, about Byrne’s dense blocks of text, appearing in practically every panel; it is rare for a page to have as little…

Hi folks,

hope you're surviving these strange days. Trump has just had another hissy fit on Twitter calling for the cast of Hamilton to apologize[sic] for being “rude” by ending their show last night with, essentially, a well-written plea for the continued protection of family and ethnic diversity, to his buddy-in-vice Pence who was made to squirm. Kudos to Brandon Victor Dixon and the other cast…

It's the morning after and Ms America is trying to remember the night before, and in to what trouble she may have fallen, when…

____________.©David Rowe

The horror stricken face is just perfect, in evoking the terror felt by everyone in the world, who is not a Trump supporter. It's a fear that grew from dismissive ragging, into burgeoning concern and, following the Republican Party nomination…

It is most gratifying when someone follows up one of my tweets or these Shed posts with a comment or question. Otherwise, to be honest, it feels like I'm shouting into the wind. Mira had obviously found the talk on Why We Believe in Gods interesting, and then asked this brilliant question, 



__________________________________________

and this is how I answered,

____________________________________…

Hi everyone,

thanks to all of you who entered the competition (some quick stats: 17% of supporters visited the page, and of those people, 10% entered the competition). So, because there's none too many entrants, and they were all correct in identifying that the latest contributor to the DISSENT OF MAN is indeed the legendary,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~…

Scene - TV studio set with hackneyed panel game set design, and bored, hackneyed panel to match. Crew flit noiselessly in the penumbral shadows, skilfully navigating the nest of semi-coiled cables, snaking the stage floor perimeter. On-screen talent in question, turning shades of ruddy roast, beneath the scorching stage lights, biting their lips to hold in the waves of contumelious indignation…

Apologies if you were hoping for an insightful examination of Anatidae (ducks, swans, geese, waterfowl per se), but the titular 3 ducks refer to the third week in a row with no pledge on the book. But, hey, what's 21 days out of the 1524 days that have elapsed since launch date? 1.3779528% to save you reaching for the calculator. Now, some crowd-funded authors might be reaching for the gin or…

Hello,



it's that tough time when the children have to haul themselves out of bed this side of lunchtime and drag themselves to skewl. I was dreading it, but I have to admit that my two daughters managed the whole ordeal quite magnificently this morning. I suspect that despite the late nights, the spring in their steps and their parents’ too, has something to do with the fortnight we’ve just returned…

I would like to share with you a momentous moment. It is only fair that I do because I think of you as my partners in this venture, and it is regarding the DISSENT OF MAN that something BIG has happened this morning.

For two miserable months now, I have been working flat-out on a refutation about which I told you in a previous post. It's miserable because the number of mistakes I…

One of the inherent features of science is that ideas proposed as hypotheses will always be tested to exhaustion in the attempt to disprove them, not in order to dethrone the scientist, but to ensure the progress of science follows as true a path as possible. that’s not to say it is the perfect 100% truth, but the closest we can get to it as tested by a broad spectrum of methods, all approaching…

I’m sick to tears of writing these damn death notices about contributors to this book. It was supposed to take far less time than this to get funded, but what can I say or do to make it any quicker? Instead, this is a fourth person who will not see the project they supported with their time and ideas. So far my homage reads,

With gratitude and deep admiration for,

Richard Gregory 

Eliane…

Hi, hope you’re keeping well. Here’s a fleeting update to keep you in the proverbial loop,

1. I’ve been working flat out on a refutation of a ludicrously silly accusation that Darwin and Wallace were plagiarists. It’s a repetitive occurrence arising out of some people’s refusal to make the effort to engage in research properly. To study science history, you’ve got to assess your findings in the…

Hello,



hope all's well in your part of the universe. I'm sad that pledging has stalled again. Sorry for being so forward, but please can I urge / beg / plead with you to persuade at least an other person to pledge - you must know someone who would be interested. I honestly can not do this by myself, which has pretty much been the case until now. Please. 



Right, that's the crawling out of…

To kickstart drawing together all the themes in a large work, I find it very useful to construct a bibliography of the literature I've consulted. A catalysing catalogue, of sorts. In this, I have an admission to make: I'm receiving some help with the cataloguing work. Meet my assistant, Simba…

To do list

1. Obligatory cat picture   ✓

2. Bibliography 

Here’s that final post I said was coming too long a time ago; apologies. It’s about our trip to Indonesia in July 2015, now and then crossing Alfred Russel Wallace’s path, traversing the Wallace Line that lies longitudinally between Bali and Lombok, and following a similar river route to his, ours up the Sekonyer Simpang Kanan in the West Kotawaringin Regency of Central Kalimantan province, southern…

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.  

Charles Darwin from "The Voyage", page 266; letter to sister Susan Elizabeth Darwin (4 August 1836)

Hi,

I hope your year has started well, although, there have been a few major blows to our collected sense of well-being recently, haven't there? Migrants, daeth, Syria, Bowie, Bley, Trump, etc. What next? One…

Unbound are very kindly giving a discount to readers: £10 off any Unbound book for one week only. Just enter AUTUMN15 at the checkout and pledge before Thursday 5th November. 



This is an unmissable opportunity for you to make that first pledge, or upgrade to a higher level. For example, it makes a 1st edition hardback only 1/2 price: a considerable saving. It's also a good chance for THE DISSENT…

Dear Reader,

I've just been sorting through some photographs from my recent jaunt to Indonesia. I’ll be putting up a few in the near future to accompany a piece about what proved to be a highlight of the trip, following in the wake of Alfred Russell Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913). Well, almost. His accounts of travel in Borneo seem to centre around Suluwesi and the north. I can't actually…

This is becoming a loathsome habit, writing here that yet another contributor to THE DISSENT OF MAN has died. Last time I reported on a trio of deaths: John Fincham, Richard Gregory and Eliane Lacroix-Hopson. This time the loss will be ever more painful for the genuinely lovely interactions I had with Oliver Sacks (RIP). He was a brilliant man, perpetually busy, but always gave his time to reply with…

I'll try to get around to writing more about the relevant bits of our recent trip to Indonesia, and for me the best bits, the Alfred Russell Wallace bits. Meanwhile, a note on something that is all too apparent as soon as we started travelling in Borneo: the nightmare problem that is the spread of oil palm cultivation.

This crop has made itself so useful, ubiquitous in the production of a vast…

This is going to be my view in a week or two. I'm heading to Borneo, via Bali and Java. It's a family holiday, but I can't go all that way and not think about Alfred Russell Wallace. It's a great excuse to travel upriver on a Klotok on the way to visit Camp Leakey, reading about Wallace's adventures thereabouts in his Malay Archipelago and Peter Raby's biography. It's also a great excuse to revisit…

Thank you everyone for getting us to 60%. I'm very happy to give what I can in return in thanks. I have some relevant books that I realised were duplicates, so I'll be giving them away too, as soon as I can arrange it. Meanwhile, let's do the prize draw for a copy of Darwin in Scotland. Drum roll please…

Going to https://www.random.org, I enter the number of supporters for Dissent of Man,…

There is a particular Darwin quote much touted on social media, particularly Twitter which, if one were to be cynical, tells you more about its convenient length rather than promulgation of the content. Hopefully it’s popularity is a function of both, but it is noticeably one of the very few Darwin quotes that does get bandied about. When Darwin was explicating on matters at hand in his writings…

Very excited to announce that we've made it to 60% which means not only are we 3/5 of the way to our target, but it's also time to send someone a copy of my previous Darwin book, Darwin in Scotland. I'll try to organise a draw and post the book out early next week, so it will be soon winging its way to one of you. Things are a bit hectic here at the moment, but I'll do my best.. 



Thanks to…

When shall I be dead and rid

     Of the wrong my father did?

          How long, how long, till spade and hearse

         Put to sleep my mother's curse?

(from A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman)

Still on the subject of fathers, following the previous post on Fathers' Day in the UK, here's Darwin's Dad, although I doubt he ever called him anything so informal. 

Dr Robert Waring…

Today is UK Fathers' Day, and it brought to mind a quote from an interview I carried out with biologist and presenter Aubrey Manning. Aubrey spoke about his first encounters with Darwin's work and how it influenced his study with Nico Tinbergen (Richard Dawkins was a subsequent PhD student of Nico's). We were talking about the accusations that Darwin had usurped, or at worse stolen, Alfred Russell…

Yes folks, they've arrived. Even if it’s a book that came out years ago, and that you’ve had delivered before, it's still a thrill to receive your own books in the mail. One I hope I’ll never tire of, or one of which I hope I’ll never tire. Whichever you prefer. Hell, I get enough of a buzz when books I buy arrive, let alone ones I've actually written, but here, in your hands is a thing you’ve…

Great news, the lovely publishers of my previous book on Darwin, Darwin in Scotland have just made some calculations and have worked out that they owe me some royalties. Always welcome, but never more so than now because I asked if, to cover some of the monies, they'd send copies of that book in lieu, and they agreed! So, now I can put up for grabs a copy of a book of which I am pretty proud, the …

I’ve always been loathed to discard any writing, but it is true that the better end result is arrived at by brutal editing,

“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.” ― Dr. Seuss

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” ― Stephen King

“Put…

When I first started compiling the material for this book in 2003, I approached the most famous and respected people in their field of interest known to me, without consideration of gender, sexuality, nationality, politics, hair colour, height, shoe size, etc. I mean, who cares about any of that?

That’s not to belittle anyone who thinks any of those things important, it’s just that when it…

Hi folks,

just had a peek at our total. Still on 53%, but what does that mean in terms of reaching that magical fully funded status? Well, I'd like to share the progress chart that authors get to see behind the scenes on the Unbound website. 

A few scribbles on the back of an envelope and the daily rate of funding between January 2013 and now has been 0.03% per day. "Not a lot!", as someone…

Hello,



I just read the paragraph below that rounded off a review of Karen Amstrong's new book, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence. It looks like the book itself is full of Amstrong's usual hand-waving and glibness with fact, but it's an interesting criticism of this genre of book in general, and includes Dawkins in that mix, 



"A balance-sheet of the harms and benefits attributable…

There are many reasons for which I get frustrated at the slow pace of funding for this book compared to other books I have seen pass by on their way to a successful 100% completion, but none more than the death of a contributor.

It has been 1017 days since Dissent of Man was launched on Unbound and all of the books launched about that time have either been long published, and some of their…

The Times, Friday, Apr 21, 1882; Issue 30487



CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN





[last known photograph by Herbert Rose Barraud, 1881]



Exactly a year to a day has separated the deaths of two of the most powerful men of this century, some have said of any century; and those who care for the task will find some very curious analogies between the progress and the ultimate results of the work of the two…

Hi there,

here’s wishing you well at the opening of this, all-too-brief-and-infrequent missive for the sole purpose to provide myself a platform with which to be shamelessly boastful. Apologies in advance, but it’s either laid out here, or in front of the cats, and in opting for your good selves, I’m hoping you will neither, rip it to shreds, chew it, mark it with your secretions, nor shit on it…

Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you for all your support so far - I think / hope 2015 will be the year that we get to 100% funding and finally get the DISSENT OF MAN into your hands and onto the bookshelves. 

The book draft itself is in fine shape, but needs a thorough going over in the light of recent advances in Cognitive Science, and how…

Hi, …, hi, …, uh, … All?

Hmmm, "All" does sound a bit impersonal. It does its job, there’s no arguing against that; inclusivity is the beat of its drum, so much so that perhaps it would be better written with arms reaching out in welcome embrace, “ —A—“  (I know, I know. “lAl”, el-ay-el, but you'll just have to pretend / squint).

Of course, when you use “All” to address a group, there is an…

I have written a piece for a book being compiled to celebrate the 60th anniversary of The Lord of the Flies. It won't be available for months, so as a small token in thanks for your pledging support, here's an excerpt which skips the main physcological biography and jumps to the Darwinian conclusion.

For me, the vital importance of The Lord of the Flies touches…

Here's hoping all your festive plans are going well. It's a special time, whatever your beliefs (unless they're that it's not a special time), and one when thoughts turn to family and home (mostly). 



Indeed, by the time it came for Darwin's fifth Christmas away from home on the Beagle voyage, he was understandably showing signs of homesickness,

Christmas-Day.—In a few more days the fourth…

Steven Pinker

"Like vision and language, our emotions and cognitive faculties are complex, useful, and nonrandomly organized, which means that they must be a product of the only physical process capable of generating complex, useful, nonrandom organization, namely natural selection." 

Gert Korthof

"Darwin had the courage to state 'That many and grave objections may be advanced…

This book is an attempt to explore the huge range of interpretations of Darwinism and to do this I interviewed over fifty commentators. Here are a few quotes from these interviews that might interest supporters and encourage others to pledge. I'll be putting more up over the next few weeks - but you'll have to support the book to read those.

George Schaller

"Darwin, whether he is mentioned…

Dear Reader,

congratulations all round, we've made it to halfway, actually a little further by the time this post goes live. To celebrate we held a prize draw and the randomly picked winner of a magnificent Darwin bust was Daryl Millar. Congratulations to him, commiserations to everyone else. Hopefully, there'll be more prizes anon.



Okay, so there's a lot more to do, not least garner another…

It's likely a romanticised version of the writer's lot, to dream of feted launches, wined agents, and lazy lunches. Romanticised maybe, but it's what I crave, and what's life without ambition? Meanwhile, I prostitute my wares openly on any market that will take them, and hope to reach the shorter-term target of 100% funding for the DISSENT OF MAN. Platitudes aside, with your help, yes we can.

Father of the other Charles Darwin (see shed post), the famous Erasmus Darwin, was summoned to Edinburgh upon his son falling ill, and for a few days after he arrived he had hopes that Charles might recover but this was not to be. Whilst in Edinburgh, Erasmus met James Hutton, and probably stayed with him. He later wrote to Hutton, entrusting him with supervising the cutting of the grave's inscription…

[© Joe Gordon, 2012] The other Charles Darwin (see shed post) died and was buried in Edinburgh.

We are going to use this wonderful sketch of Charles Darwin by Simon Gurr (http://simongurr.wordpress.com/) on the endplates of the book. This sort of attention to detail is what makes Unbound books so very special, and The Dissent of Man is going to be no exception. Pledging at the PRINT level and above will not only obtain you a beautiful hardback copy of the book, but also prints of this Darwin…

This striking rendition of the Huxley-Wilberforce clash by Simon Gurr (http://simongurr.wordpress.com) was used in the book's pitch video. Pledging at the PRINT level and above will not only obtain you a beautiful hardback copy of the book, but also prints of this drawing and of Simon's lovely Darwin Sketch that is to be used on the endplates of the book. This sort of attention to detail is what makes…

It's almost impossible to find a decent statue of Charles Darwin available for sale. I know, I've spent a long time looking. The only ones I did find looked more like Socrates or Captain Birdseye. I wanted an instantly recognisable piece that got me thinking about Darwin and his works as soon as my eye fell upon it. I din't want to have to work to recognise him. I shared my frustrations with…

Hi everyone,

I've told you before how grateful I am for your support by pledging for the DISSENT OF MAN. We're nearly 1/2-way which will hopefully bring with it a chance for another competition giveaway to launch us into the home strait.

Meanwhile, here is a link to the PDF download of my DARWIN PAPERS, a little gift (worth £1.99!) from me to you. It's an eclectic mix of both academic and…

Thanks to everyone who has supported the book - it's not going to become a reality otherwise. Please do do what you can to promote it further. Between us we will make it happen. I hope you have a gloriously good new year and all your wishes come true, too. Jx

Season's greetings, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and thank you for supporting this book. Looking forward to it reaching full funding as soon as possible in the new year. Cheers!

Current understanding suggests that religion is partly an adaptive advantage by fostering cooperation between individuals. However, antagonistic to this strengthening of community relations, psychological predisposition for faith initially established and now perpetuates a polarised science-religion debate. Yet this evolutionary pre-programming of people is an important but often omitted element…

I recently had a meeting with Xander of Unbound to discuss the details of The Dissent of Man. Up until now we knew what the book was going to be about, and most of the content, as dictated by the interviews that I have been collecting over the years. But, we still had to decide on the way the book was going to flow, how those interviews would tell the story, and how we would highlight different sections…

Ken Ham toured Scotland in 2007, as part of which he delivered a sermon on Young Earth Creationism and the literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis in Edinburgh, as the President of Answers in Genesis-U.S. and Joint CEO of Answers in Genesis International, and has been instrumental in setting up the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. He frequently appears in the media and presents…

More from our chat. This on Darwin's writing prowess. 

Clip here:

Richard Dawkins Clip 2

Transcript here:

"I had the great privilege of reading “The Origin ...” aloud for  CD, for recording, so I had to abridge it, and I had to read it extremely thoroughly to abridge it, and then also every sentence I read extremely thoroughly to get the exact sense so that when I read it aloud…

I've been busy writing and sifting through the mounds of material I have for inclusion in the book. It's very exciting to listen back to these interviews. Thought I'd share this clip with you. 



Richard Dawkins Clip 1 

(link will work if you've already supported the book, otherwise please use player on the right of this page in Desktop version)

"Darwin is so important, it is almost absurd…

I made a mistake in my book Darwin in Scotland, regarding Charles Darwin’s uncle, another Charles Darwin,

Why would Darwin choose to attend Edinburgh? The quick answer is that he didn’t – his father decided for him, and Edinburgh was chosen because it was a family tradition to go there to study medicine. In fact, anyone pursuing a career in medicine was wise to go to Edinburgh, as since…

To celebrate reaching a quarter (25%) of the way to our target, I would again like to give something back to say thank you, and again it's a copy of Simon and Eugene's amazing "Darwin A Graphic Novel".

So, as before, thank you again to all who have supported the book so far, and if you don't win this time, I hope you do so next. 102 names go into the hat (spreadsheet, sorted alphabetically), one…

On this day in 1864, Charles Darwin's "The Movement and Habits of Climbing Plants" was published by the Linnean Society. He wrote about it in his "Autobiography":



In the autumn of 1864 I finished a long paper on Climbing Plants, and sent it to the Linnean Society. The writing of this paper cost me four months: but I was so unwell when I received the proof-sheets that I was forced to leave them very…

Thank you for your patience in awaiting this next addition to our shed space. I've been amassing quite a collection of Darwin-related gems harvested from across the internet and I thought you good people might like a share of them. Sorry they're in no particular order or grouping, but I have checked through the links on posting them here, so I hope they all work for you.

There are of course tons…

To celebrate reaching a fifth (20%) of the way to our target, I would like to give something back to say thank you. I am really sorry I don't have something to give you all, but hopefully we can share in the joy of someone winning this token. 

The prize is really quite special. It is a copy of "Darwin A Graphic Novel", a collaboration between writer Eugene Byrne and Simon Gurr, the wonderfully…

Core to the book is the polemic exhibited by all sides in the science-religion debate. People really know their own minds, and often claim to know the minds of their opposition. The version put forward all seems very black and white.



One point of view that hardly gets represented is agnosticism. In fact agnostics are if anything derided for being stuck in the middle, unsure and usually depicted…

Hello everyone,

furiously plotting and planning good stuff to bring you here in our shed. In the meantime, a quick note to say that we are on the cusp of a pivotal moment: 19% pledged brings us within striking distance of getting our competitions started. I say competitions when I really mean prize draws. You guys have done enough already just by backing the book, and I'd prefer to give back something…

It's almost impossible to find a decent statue of Charles Darwin available for sale. I know, I've spent a long time looking. The only ones I did find looked more like Socrates or Captain Birdseye. I wanted an instantly recognisable piece that got me thinking about Darwin and his works as soon as my eye fell upon it. I didn't want to have to work to recognise him. I shared my frustrations with…

This striking rendition of the Huxley-Wilberforce clash by Simon Gurr was used in the book's pitch video. Pledging at the PRINT level and above will not only obtain you a beautiful hardback copy of the book, but also prints of this drawing and of Simon's lovely Darwin Sketch that is to be used on the endplates of the book.

This sort of attention to detail is what makes Unbound books so…

Dear "Pledger", 

or should I address you as "Partner", because you are helping to make this book happen, and we all want it to happen (otherwise we wouldn't be here): dear Partner, welcome to OUR Shed. 



Firstly, a HUGE thank you for supporting this book project. It has literally been a decade in the making, and I would like to tell you more about that journey in future posts. Meanwhile, suffice…