What was it like living with Charles Darwin? The discovery of his wife’s diaries in a chest of drawers belonging to their family has given us some glimpses. Spanning more than 60 years, they suggest a life dominated by illness.
Emma Darwin’s diaries rarely mention her husband’s research but record instead visits from friends and relatives, trips to the dentist, the weather and a constant stream of ailments that dogged her family.
In particular, they provide agonising insights on Charles’s poor health, says Jim Moore, a historian of science at the UK’s Open University, based in Milton Keynes. The detailed…
