The Illustrious Hunter and the Darwins aims to set the record straight on one of the most revered figures in Natural History. Since the publication of the Origin of Species in 1859, Charles Darwin has widely been acknowledged as the father of evolutionary biology. When we think of evolution, we think of Darwin. However, there is extensive evidence to suggest that Darwin was not the originator of evolutionary theory and that his work was based to a considerable extent on the scientists and thinkers who preceded him such as Jean Hunter, Jean Baptiste-Lamarck, Georges Cu vier, Patrick Matthew and Edward Blyth. In his thought-provoking series of essays, W.J. Dempster examines the lives of these scientists and thinkers and suggests that while Darwin was a brilliant scientist and thinker himself, his ideas were essentially those of Lamarck. So, although Darwin 'did a great service in bringing together in one volume a vast amount of the scientific information of his day...there is nothing original'.