Charles Darwin & Canons

12th February, 2009

Today is the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. North London Collegiate School has an interesting link with the great naturalist, as Susannah Prichard (ONL 2007) found out when she interviewed his great-great grandaughter, the renowned poet Ruth Padel (ONL 1964)

Ruth Padel left North London Collegiate School in 1964. She went on to become a prize-winning poet and Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and Zoology Society of London. She was the first female Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and has also lectured on Greek Tragedy in Cambridge.

Today marks a rather special occasion for this Old North Londoner. Ruth Padel is the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin and 12^th February 2009 celebrates the two-hundredth anniversary of his birth. In commemoration, Ruth Padel is doing a series of programmes on Radio4 this month called Darwin: My Ancestor and releasing a biography today written through poetry entitled Darwin: A Life in Poems.

The biography provides a number of remarkable insights into the life of this famous scientist. These range from stories of his boyhood, to his hatred of studying medicine at Edinburgh University and how he became interested in natural history. The tale of the dangerous journey on HMS Beagle and his discoveries of evolution encompass a great deal of excitement when portrayed through the medium of poetry. Padel also writes about aspects of his personal life – how he came to marrying his wife (and first cousin) Emma Wedgwood and the problems they had owing to Darwin’s weakening Christian faith. She writes with accuracy and elegance about the experiences of this extraordinary man.

When I asked Ruth Padel how much influence being a descendent of Darwin had had upon her poetry and non-fiction work, she said, “I didn’t think that it did, but gradually I realised that it had”. The first time she recognized this was when doing the research for her non-fiction work on tigers entitled Tigers in Red Weather. During her travels to the jungles of Bhutan, India, Russia, China, Laos and Brazil, she was working with scientists and conservationists to accurately study the lives of tigers. She said, “I realised as I was going that, whilst Darwin had travelled through the tropics to very similar places looking at how species came to be, I was doing the same thing, only one hundred and seventy years later”.

Furthermore, Darwin observed more than just the wildlife on his voyage to South America. He witnessed the dreadful treatment of slaves in British colonies at the time and invested a great deal of energy into writing to the British government to rectify the situation. Ruth Padel herself has also campaigned for human rights when condemning the Chinese control of Tibet that she witnessed during her travels. Human rights seem to be a concern that runs in the family. The aspirations of Ruth Padel’s daughter, Gwen Burnyeat, reconfirm this idea. Gwen is currently studying European Literature at Darwin College, Cambridge, and hopes to work in human rights following her graduation.

Hailed as “the sexiest voice in British poetry”, Ruth Padel has summoned a wide fan base in the world of literature. It has even been speculated that she might be in the running for the next Poet Laureate. This would be an amazing achievement as she would be the first woman to undertake the role since John Dryden was appointed by the Royal household in 1668. However, she expressed reluctance at accepting such an offer because, as she said, “I think that there are some poets that do it very well, but I think that doing it well may endanger your work”. Nonetheless, from 1^st March, Ruth Padel is going to become the Resident Writer for Christ’s College, Cambridge. She will also be speaking at the Darwin Festival taking place in July.

When asked about memories of her time at North London Collegiate, she spoke with great fondness of the teachers she had during her time at the school. Remembering the choir teacher, Miss Godden, Ruth said that “the music she did with us has stayed with me all my life”. She also spoke of the admiration she held for her Classics teacher, Miss Chandler, and her English teacher, Miss Haffner. These are the two subjects which Ruth Padel went on to pursue later in life, suggesting that North London Collegiate may indeed have given Ruth the inspiration to embark upon some of her many achievements.

 

Susannah Prichard is a Scholar of Pembroke College, Cambridge, reading Social & Political Sciences.

Website editor: Miriam Fine (Yr 13)