In Charles Darwin’s time, most people in Europe and America believed what the Bible told them was fact—that God created the world in six days. But during his voyage on the Beagle, Darwin began to observe nature very closely and question everything he’d been taught. He found evidence that living things could naturally change over very long periods of time … which eventually led to his groundbreaking theory of evolution. Darwin knew that his ideas would shock people, and would anger and upset many, but today, scientists accept that evolution is a fact. Charles Darwin changed history, and it all started with the strange and wonderful things he saw during his voyage on the Beagle, and especially in the Galapagos Islands.

Queen Victoria

In June 1837, the eighteen-year-old Victoria became Queen. She is another historical person we mostly associate with being an older lady, dressed in black and looking rather grim. But in my book she is lively and curious, still a teenager, just finding her way as the new Queen of England. Queen Victoria had a very strict, controlled upbringing called the Kensington System, where she wasn’t ever allowed to be alone, had to sleep in her mother’s bedroom, was kept away from other children, never allowed sweet foods, and barely ever left the palace. I imagine she would have been delighted with her new freedom when she became Queen of England, able to boss everyone else around for a change, and ready for an adventure that took her outside the prisonlike palace. Victoria really did love animals and definitely met Jenny the orangutan.

Mary Anne Whitby

In Darwin’s time, there were not many opportunities for women to work in Science, but Mary Anne Whitby and Darwin wrote letters to each other later in his life. She was a silkworm breeder, and her experiments helped Darwin develop his theory of natural selection.

Emmeline Covington

Emmeline really was Syms Covington’s youngest daughter. Very little is known about her, so I have given her a fully fictional adventure.

The Officers and Sailors

Captain Fitzroy commanded the Beagle, and all sailors in this book—the marine, Robbins; the ship’s surgeon, Bynoe; the cook; and the ship’s boy—were on the Beagle’s papers, real members of the crew.

The Places

The Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands situated across the equator in the Pacific Ocean. They are part of Ecuador in South America and are now a national park and marine reserve. Many animals that live there are not found anywhere else in the world, so are very rare.

Narborough Island is a real place, now known as Fernandina Island. It is the second-largest island of the Galapagos, but Darwin never went there. Fernandina does have an active shield volcano, which erupted ten years before my story is set, plus lava tube tunnels. It has no source of fresh water and nobody lives there permanently, even now. The Galapagos animals Syms encounters are also all real, and it is reasonable to imagine they could have lived on Fernandina at the time. Including the dragons, of course!