My Granny

Patrick Wall

• The Monkey Puzzle by John Gribbin and Jeremy Cherfas
  Bodley Head, 279 pp, £8.50, April 1982, ISBN 0 370 30469 1
• Darwinism Defended: A Guide to the Evolution Controversies by Michael Ruse
  Addison Wesley, 356 pp, £6.95, April 1982, ISBN 0 201 06273 9
• The Aquatic Ape: A Theory of Human Evolution by Elaine Morgan
  Souvenir, 168 pp, £7.95, March 1982, ISBN 0 285 62509 8
• The Neck of the Giraffe, or Where Darwin went wrong by Francis Hitching
  Pan, 288 pp, £2.50, April 1982, ISBN 0 330 26643 8

When Darwin died a hundred years ago; he could reasonably have said, ‘Après moi, le déluge,’ because we are still awash with books and ideas for, against and about him. The issue is intellectually enthralling, moves rapidly, and is of practical importance. The Monkey Puzzle is about the origin of man, and, in particular, about the date when the line which led to us separated from that which led to chimpanzees and gorillas. There is a debate in progress as to whether this separation occurred four or 20 million years ago.