This biography of Charles Darwin attempts to capture the private unknown life of the real man - the gambling and gluttony at Cambridge, his gruelling trip round the globe, his intimate family life, worries about persecution and thoughts about God. Central to all of this, his pioneering efforts on the theory of evolution now that recent studies have overturned the commonplace views of Darwin that have held for more than a century.

By examining Darwin's manuscripts and correspondence (published and unpublished) and covert notebooks, the author put forward the argument that Darwin's hatred of slavery shaped his ideas and laid the foundations for his revolutionary ideas.