Emma Darwin’s Radio Story

Dr Emma Darwin's short story 'Calling', will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 4^th August at 3:30 pm. It will be read by Philip Voss, and is part of the "Lost in the Lanes" series. It'll also be available as a 'Listen Again' on the BBC iPlayer for seven days after that. Read more about the creative process on Emma's blog.

A Darwin Family Tradition

Back in March I wrote a piece congratulating Dr Emma Darwin, best-selling and award-winning authoress on the achievement of her Doctorate – following in a grand family tradition. Soon after, Emma, who has just written a short story for broadcast on BBC Radio 4, e-mailed to alert me to the fact that, in her own generation, she was just but the latest. Her sister Carola achieved her Ph.D. in Musicology last Autumn whilst their eldest sister Sophia was awarded her Ph.D. in Mathematics some time ago.

Dr Sophia Darwin is a member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at my alma mater Durham University.

Dr Carola Darwin is a celebrated English soprano singer, more details here and here.

I hereby suggest that a collective noun for Doctors could be "A Darwin of Doctors."

A New Doctor Darwin - Congratulations Emma

Emma Darwin is the award winning author of The Mathematics of Love and A Secret Alchemy – a direct descendant of Charles Darwin and Emma Wedgwood she has just been awarded her PhD in creative writing. Congratulations Dr Darwin.

Emma's books:

Synopsis  (from Waterstones.com) From the Suffolk countryside to the old Basque towns of Spain, Emma Darwin's unforgettable debut tells the astoundingly moving story of Stephen, a veteran of Waterloo, whose suffering and secret lost happiness is transformed by love. Gorgeously written, fascinating and engrossing, THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE is a sexy, heart-breaking, glorious novel by a major new literary star.

Synopsis (from Waterstones.com) Two murdered princes; a powerful queen betrayed; a nobleman riding towards his certain death...The story of the Princes in the Tower has been one of the most fascinating - and most brutal - murder mysteries in history for more than five hundred years. In a brilliant feat of historical daring, Emma Darwin has recreated the terrible, exhilarating world of the two youngest victims of the War of the Roses: the power struggles and passion that lay behind their birth, the danger into which they fell, the profoundly moving days before their imprisonment, and the ultimate betrayal of their innocence. In A Secret Alchemy, three voices speak: that of Elizabeth Woodville, the beautiful widow of King Edward IV; of her brother Anthony, surrogate father to the doomed Prince Edward and his brother Dickon; and that of present-day historian Una Pryor. Orphaned, and herself brought up in a family where secrets and rivalries threaten her world, Una's experience of tragedy, betrayal and lost love help her unlock the long-buried secrets that led to the princes' deaths. Weaving their stories together, Emma Darwin brilliantly evokes how the violence and glamour of past ages live on within our present.

Emma's ancestry

Emma was born and brought up in London, she is the daughter of Henry Galton Darwin, a Foreign Office Lawyer, son of Sir Charles Galton Darwin who was the son of George Howard Darwin – the son of  Charles Darwin, author of On the Origin of Species and Descent of Man, and his wife Emma Wedgwood. He was, of course, also a grandson of Josiah Wedgwood I.

Links

·         Home Page: http://www.emmadarwin.com/

·         Blog: http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/

·         Wikipedia article:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Darwin_(novelist)

·         Profile in the Daily Telegraph (18^th March 2007)

Emma Wedgwood and Charles Darwin Play

Sent to me by Mrs Alison Wedgwood:

"Calling all descendants of Darwin and Wedgwood and friends of Staffordshire Dr Alan Wedgwood (head of the ["Etruria"] branch of the Wedgwood family) has sponsored this play for one showing only at the Wedgwood Museum on 14th June, all about Emma Wedgwood and Charles Darwin and based exactly on their letters. He's saw it a few months ago and thought it was brilliant."

“BETTER THAN A DOG” : The relationship of CHARLES and EMMA DARWIN (both grand-children of Josiah Wedgwood) dramatically revealed through their letters and journals.
Triumph and tragedy, humour and heartache all play their part in this extraordinary love story, which reveals the very private life of the very famous scientist and his sociable, devout wife

Reviews:

“Thrilled the audience ….. incredibly moving” Shropshire Star

“a totally different view of Darwin as loving father and adoring husband, with a great sense of humour” – Shrewsbury Chronicle.

Date & Time

June 14th at 4 pm

Tickets £20 including free entrance to the Wedgwood museum and refreshments.

Wedgwood Books

I am a hopeless bibliophile, my wife despairs at my clutter of books.

I am going to start a series of Blog Posts on family related books, both by members of the extended family, and books on our shared family history of biographies of individuals. There are many biographies on Josiah Wedgwood of course, and also on Charles Darwin, especially in this anniversary year. There family has also produced many authors, the celebrated historian Dame Cicely Veronica Wedgwood OM, the noted American Constitutional Scholar Dr William Wedgwood and more recently the poetess Ruth Padel and Emma Darwin.

I have also set up an Amazon Associates Store to showcase these and other books.

Emma Darwin "A Secret Alchemy"

Emma Darwin has a new novel out.....
	A Secret Alchemy by Emma Darwin In stock Price: £17.99 20 used & new from £7.15
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