Really fascinating to read these diaries from the man who changed the face of society more than perhaps anyone else in the last millennium. Did Darwin kill God? If he did, it's remarkable because his diaries read so very gently, and he was certainly a measured and profound intellect. For me this is the magic of this work, it conveys his incredible curiosity and is delivered in such a calm and thoughtful manner.

I note in Darwin's astrology that Saturn/Neptune rising squares Mercury/Pluto, and this seems to describe both the penetrating intellect and how it was in tension with the need to actualise very immaterial concepts, like a theory of evolution.

He was also a great humanist, reading his thoughts on slavery, at the same time as Wilberforce's crusade was in full swing is truly fascinating. You feel his passion, and his disgust at the entire concept of treating humans as chattels.

All in all a very interesting read, although there is a lot of detail. Darwin was my stepfather's hero, and he eventually held the chair of anthropology at Christ's College, Cambridge, Darwin's alma mater. I am so glad to have finally read this, it brings me closer to my late stepfather somehow.