Shropshire & Downe - Two Landscapes Darwin Held Dear

Ewa Prokop has been in the unusual position of having been employed as an officer in the field of nature conservation in both Downe and Shropshire, two landscapes scientist Charles Darwin held dear. As a newcomer to Shropshire and curious of the environment in which Darwin spent his youth, she has created an impression of Darwin’s Shropshire by piecing together historic records of biodiversity in his day. In places she compares her findings to the biodiversity around his home at Downe, where he lived for forty years and where she worked for eighteen. She has combined this with extracts from Darwin’s and other authors’ works to give the reader a sense of Darwin as a person too.