From one of Australia's most highly regarded authors comes a timely novel about history, evolution, and authorship. Last century Charles Darwin set out on a voyage in the Beagle that would change forever the way human history was viewed. It was on this voyage that Darwin collected the information that gave birth to his controversial Theory of Evolution. MR DARWIN'S SHOOTER is the story of Syms Covington, Darwin's manservant on the Beagle and afterwards. 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 ... This is a novel of scientific discovery, of religious faith, of masters and servants, and of the endless wonder of the natural world. But its greatest triumph is Covington himself, the boy who looked up at the beckoning figure of yellow - haired Christian in the stained glass window in his boyhood church of Bedford, and sought to follow. He leaves Bedford as a lad of 13 and goes to sea with the evangelical sailor John Phipps and becomes one of Phipps' 'lads'. But Phipps' catechising can't repress Covington's passage into manhood, nor prevent him chasing the exotic native maidens of Tierra del Fuego. Covington has a great appetite for life, and refuses to let Phipps dampen it. After a brief return home to Bedfordshire, where things seem much less rosy than in the memories he has travelled with, he returns to the sea again. This time to serve on the Beagle. At first it is Covington's best friend Joey who is chosen to serve the gloomy - looking 'gent' who accompanies the ship; but after Joey's tragic drowning, gradually Covington insinuates his way into Darwin's service. MR DARWIN'S SHOOTER re - creates the voyage of the Beagle, and we travel with it along the Patagonian coast, where the bones of mysterious giant creatures are found, and where Covington spends time exploring - and collecting specimens - inland. And we travel on to the Galapagos Islands, with their huge turtles and armadillos and remarkable finches. Years later, in Sydney's Watson's Bay in beset middle age, Covington awaits the arrival of the first copy of Darwin's The Origin of the Species, which contains the scandalous theory of evolution. What part of his life might be in it? What truths may it contain? How can one man absorb the meaning of Creation? Earthy, insightful and beautifully written.