Christiane Dorion's passion for writing children's books stems from the thousands of questions she asked as a child, many of which remained unanswered: How big is the universe? When did life begin? Originally from Canada, Christiane moved to the UK to carry out a PhD in environmental education, before working for WWF-UK for eight years. In 2002, Christiane left to become an educational consultant and writer, and her award-winning books are intended to inspire children to explore the complex systems of the world we live in and help protect it. Harry Tennant is London-born, but escaped to the coves of Cornwall to study Illustration at University College Falmouth, before returning to the capital once more. He now works as a freelance illustrator, using a mixture of hand drawn and digital media to create his illustrations, and primarily produces artwork for magazines and book covers.

This beautiful book, with elegant prints by Harry Tennant of ships and landscapes, equipment and creatures, is the story of the naturalist and explorer whose work inspired Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.