ABOUT
THE BOOK

I was smart as a carrot new-scraped and that was the best of me. I loved my scriptures and I lived my happiness to the full ….” Based on the true story of Syms Covington, man-servant to Charles Darwin on the famous voyage of the Beagle, this is a novel of scientific discovery, religious faith, masters and servants, ambition and adventure, and the endless wonder of the natural world. As a boy, Covington looked up at the beckoning figure of yellow-haired Christian in the stained-glass window of his Bedford chapel and sought to follow. When he meets Darwin, fifteen-year-old Covington is already an old Patagonia hand. In the course of their voyage together he shoots and collects hundreds of specimens which become fundamental to the formulation of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. But what do these discoveries mean for a man’s soul? Darwin’s work challenges Biblical creation. In assisting him, has Covington committed a crime against God and his own nature? In beset middle age, Covington awaits the arrival of the first copy of Darwin’s The Origins of the Species in Sydney’s Watson’s Bay. What part of his life might be in it? What truths may it contain? Earthy, insightful and beautifully written, Mr Darwin’s Shooter is a novel from a writer at the height of his powers.