The Beak Of The Finch

A book that reads as easily as a good novel, while adroitly conveying information -- John Gribbin * Sunday Times * Jonathan Weiner's powerful and elegant book is a meditation on Darwinism, from its beginnings to our current planetary crisis... At its core is a study of the changes that are still happening to the 13 finch species that inhabit the Galapagos Islands. They are famous ( and fabled) birds, whose eccentric adaptations to the raw, unformed habitats of these young volcanoes gave Darwin one of the crucial clues in the development of his theory of "the Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection" -- Richard Mabey * Independent on Sunday * No other book has displayed so dramatically the tiny but momentous changes that are taking place all around us in the living world. Darwin would be cheering -- Derwent May * Evening Standard * The subtle interweaving of historical fact, hard scientific detail and humorous anecdote makes this the kind of popular science writing to which many authors aspire but which so few achieve * Economist *