Join the Friends for an evening with Dr Jude Piesse to discuss Charles Darwin's forgotten garden, letters to his sisters, and working creatively within the Cambridge University Library archives. The talk will be followed by a short reading and a glass of wine, and the opportunity to view the exhibition Darwin In Conversation.
It was at The Mount in Shrewsbury, under the tutelage of his green-fingered mother and sisters, that Charles Darwin first examined the reproductive life of flowers, collected birds’ eggs, and began the experiments that would lead to his groundbreaking theory of evolution. A century and a half later, Dr Jude Piesse finds herself living next door. Blending biography, nature writing, and memoir, her latest book The Ghost in the Garden tells the story of Darwin's lost childhood garden.
This event is free and open to all, including Friends and non members.
Please RSVP to events@lib.cam.ac.uk.
About the Speaker
Jude Piesse is an academic and writer. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and a PhD in English Literature from the University of Exeter. She has published widely on nineteenth-century literature and culture, and now works as a lecturer in English Literature at Liverpool John Moores University.
Author photo by © Eden Media 2020
Darwin in Conversation
Charles Darwin’s name is so famous, still so constantly invoked in debates on evolution, society, and religion, that the man himself is easily overlooked.
Darwin’s letters sit alongside his famous publications, providing a more rounded, personal view of Darwin. A prolific correspondent, he wrote and received over 15,000 letters in his lifetime. Cambridge University Library’s upcoming exhibition uses this correspondence to uncover little-known aspects of Darwin’s life. It reveals a global network, fuelled by letters, carrying knowledge and insight between the public, subject specialists, and some of the most famous names of 19th century science. Darwin’s ideas were forged through this correspondence.
Discover more about the exhibition here.
Location: Milstein Seminar Room, Cambridge University Library
Registration: RSVP to events@lib.cam.ac.uk here.
Date: Thursday 11 August 2022