Monday 9 February 2009
Kenneth Clarke Lecture Theatre  at Somerset House

A unique evening celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth. Ruth Padel, Darwin's great-great-granddaughter and writer-in-residence at Somerset House, read from her 
collection Darwin: A life in Poems, and discussed Darwin as man, writer and scientist with evolutionary geneticist Jonathan Howard, Professor of Cell Genetics and author of Darwin: A Very Short Introduction.

The evening was chaired by Randal Keynes, also a great-great-grandchild of Charles Darwin, author of Annie's Box: Charles Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution.

Somerset House has a special place in Darwin’s life, as he wrote his secret notebooks, which blossomed into a series of books that changed the nature of scientific thought, while working as Secretary of the Royal Geological Society at Somerset House, 1838-1839.

This event was jointly organised by The Royal Society, The Royal Society of Literature and Somerset House Trust and sponsored by the Kohn Foundation.