Voyage of the Beagle. Charles Darwin. 1987.

When the naturalist Charles Darwin returned from his five-year trip to South America on board HMS Beagle, he brought with him thousands of specimens of the strange and wonderful plants and creatures he had encountered and also the notes that would form the basis of his landmark theory of evolution. This exhilarating, energetically written account of his travels and conclusions sparked a fierce scientific, religious and philosophical debate which still rages today.