Darwin dissed again and again by a Brit! (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, September 10, 2017, 15:12 (2631 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I had promised to let you know about reviews. Here are some quotes:

The Guardian
Charles Darwin by AN Wilson review – how wrong can a biography be?
Wilson blames Darwin for totalitarianism and portrays him as a monster of ruthless self-interest. It’s a prolific biographer’s cheap attempt to ruffle feathers
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New Scientist Live
‘Radical’ new biography of Darwin is unreliable and inaccurate
A. N. Wilson's error-strewn and tendentious portrayal of Charles Darwin as a "Victorian mythmaker" falls into old traps and digs new ones, finds John van Wyhe

The book claims to be a “radical reappraisal of one of the great Victorians, a book which isn’t afraid to challenge the Darwinian orthodoxy”. The result is one of the most unreliable, inaccurate and tendentious anti-Darwin books of recent times.
xxxx

Evening Standard
When it comes to the author’s speculations on evolutionary theory, however, the book is fatally flawed, mischievous, and ultimately misleading.
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Sunday Times
Wrong, wrong and wrong again
AN Wilson tries to attack the fundamentals of Darin’s great work on evolution. What he reveals is his own scientific ignorance, writes professor Steven Jones.

Elsewhere I've read that the book has been trashed by most critics. I can only comment on the two articles of his that I have read,summarizing his arguments, and it seems I am not alone in my distaste.

Thank you. An avalanche of criticism.