11 April

My dear friend Ben has released this extraordinary book. Looking at Darwin's ideas on psychology, but much more than that, also examining the ways Darwin's thought has been perverted since his death, most often because people are simply too lazy to read him, and deal with (false) stereotypes of his ideas. Ben shows how the idea of 'agency' was central to Darwin's thinking, and not just human agency (I mention agency a lot, it's a hot topic, a totally different way of seeing the world). Ben and I discussed the ideas in this book over many great lunches, over several years, and I recommend it to anybody. It reads like a novel, Ben is a fabulous writer, so don't be concerned it might be dry.