‘The classic of memoir of inter-generational strife, with an afterword from author of The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry and an introduction from Anthony Quinn. Subtitled a study of two temperaments Edmund Gosse’s childhood memoir tells the often fractious, often comic story of Gosse s relationship with his authoritarian father. A pioneering naturalist and marine biologist, Philip Henry Gosse’s strictly religious worldview is brought into crisis by the discoveries of Charles Darwin and the death of his wife — and Edmund s mother — Emily. As Edmund breaks away from his father’s influence, the evolution from one epoch to the next is described in all of its struggle, humour and glory.