This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

'Perhaps the best historical novel I have read…A stunning achievement of imagination and story-telling. A masterpiece.' Bernard Cornwell

'It's an excellent read, in the traditions of Patrick O'Brian, and fully deserves its position on the Booker list.'

The Daily Telegraph

In 1831 Charles Darwin set off in HMS Beagle under the command of Captain Robert Fitzroy on a voyage that would change the world. 

In novels by Kurt Vonnegut, we find the concept of a "karass": a small group of people whom fate brings together to accomplish great things.

The suicide of a British captain in 1828 and the need to replace him in charting the icy complexities of Tierra Del Fuego led to the appointment of Fitzroy as commander of the Beagle. His manic-depressive state led him to advertise for a ship's naturalist, a companion to jolly him from dark moods - and to appoint Charles Darwin. Of such contingencies are revolutions made, whether or not they might have happened otherwise.

This is an epic novel of sea-faring adventure set in the 19th century charting the life of Fitzroy, the captain of 'The Beagle' and his passenger Charles Darwin.

It combines adventure, emotion, ideas, humour and tragedy as well as illuminating the history of the 19th century. Fitzroy, the Christian Tory aristocrat believed in the sanctity of the individual, but his beliefs destroyed his career and he committed suicide. Darwin, the liberal minor cleric doubts the truth of the Bible and develops his theory of evolution which is brutal and unforgiving in human terms. The two friends became bitter enemies as Darwin destroyed everything Fitzroy stood for.

This Thing of Darkness is two sorts of book: a superior adventure story and a polemic. One can enjoy the former considerably while noting that the manners of the latter are wanting. The Independent

About the Author

Harry Thompson was a highly successful television producer 'Have I Got News for You, They Think It's All Over, Never Mind the Buzzcocks' and the author of a number of non-fiction bestsellers 'Peter Cook, The Biography'. He wrote for most of the national newspapers, especially on travel, and was nominated for Travel Journalist of the Year. He died in November 2005.

Click here to read an interview with the author from The Guardian conducted a few months before he died...