'Classic' is almost too trite a word for this wonderful story in Darwin's own words of his famous career-setting journey of a lifetime. Darwin was 22 years old in 1831 when he accmpanied Captain Robert FitzRoy on a mapping-collecting trip to South America. Darwin returned five years later, having marvelled at the wonders of the natural world and taken copious notes about it which led to books and papers and scientific celebrity. It would be several more decades (1859) before Darwin published the famous theory of natural selection to explain evolution but the seeds were all here in this trip - the finches of the Galapagos, the arguments with Captain FitzRoy, the first glimpse of the astonishing diversity of the tropical rain forest, the geological wonders that spoke to Darwin about the Earth's changes. It is highly readable, a book to give any modern adventurer a hint of the thrill of discovery, a book to dip into and to come back to time and again. (Kirkus UK)