Title adaptation

Simon Underdown notes in his enthusiastic review of Peter J. Bowler’s Darwin Deleted: Imagining a World without Darwin (Books, 9 May) the author’s conclusion that without Charles, “the Darwin-themed gift trade would have suffered”.

This trade has enabled English Heritage to produce a mug celebrating Darwin’s residence in a house on a site in Gower Street that is now part of University College London. The mug’s inscription informs me that in 1859 he wrote Origin of the Species. It is interesting how the absence of a preposition and a change in word order can so readily transform the meaning of the title to Darwin’s classic work.

R. E. Rawles
Honorary research fellow in psychology
University College London