In 1858, aged thirty-five, weak with malaria, isolated in the remote Spice Islands, Alfred Russel Wallace wrote to Charles Darwin: he had, he said excitedly, worked out a theory of natural selection. A year later, with Wallace still at the opposite side of the world, On the Origin of Species was published.

Describes MacLean's extensive Royal Navy war experiences in the Arctic, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean.

Originally published in 1979, All Around the Year is a diary following a year at Parsonage Farm, a mixed farm in Devon. The book documented a way of life unchanged for centuries, but which was already remote to most people.

* A beautifully written memoir of growing up Catholic in Northern Ireland