The Evolution of Inanimate Objects: The Life and Collected Works of Thomas Darwin

I received a free copy of this book as it won or was nominated for a prize and the publisher was asking on Twitter if anyone wanted a copy to review. As I want to review more books for my blog (good thing I am at a book festival) I was like yeah, I'd like a copy please.

Plus is has a wonderfully pretty cover.

The book is by Harry Karlinsky who is Canadian psychiatrist and new novelist.  It is clear in the book that the author has great knowledge of psychology and has used his research skills greatly to try understand the person that is Thomas Darwin (the son of Charles Darwin).

The easiest way to describe this book would be to say that is is a little strange but it is based on actual findings so this makes it equally as interesting. The story revolves around Thomas growing up in the Darwin household where his interest in intimate objects (mainly cutlery) began and his progression to Oxford where his interest evolved to be an obsession.  There are parallels to research Thomas carried out on the cutlery with his Dad's research into evolution but most interesting is the psychology behind Thomas's erratic behaviour. 

It is not a terribly big book and therefore does not take long to read so I would say if you fancy reading something a little out of the ordinary you should grab yourself a copy of this and try it out.