From so simple a beginning...

For eight years, before publishing On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin worked on barnacles. His study was so thorough, his home so full of specimens, that one of his daughters asked her school friend: 'And where does your father keep his barnacles'.

Having returned from his voyage on the Beagle, and never able to stand London, Darwin settled at Down House, in the village of Downe, in Kent. It's a largish house, similar to the country parsonage that Charles had at one point been destined for. He lived, it seems, happily here. Near enough to be a part of a fastmoving scientific community, but in the English countryside he always loved.

And now, I work there. I intend to tell you about it. I also read a lot of poetry, and attend quite a few poetry readings. I will probably tell you about this too. I hope it will be an interesting and successful hybrid.