In his early 20s, Thomas Henry Huxley was a nobody. And yet together he and his wife Henrietta would return to London and go on to found one of the great intellectual and scientific dynasties of their age. The Huxley family worked as scientists, novelists, mystics, film-makers, poets public lecturers, educators and explainers. They shaped great organizations - the Natural History Museum, Imperial College, the London Zoo, UNESCO, the World Wildlife Fund - and they fundamentally shaped how we see ourselves, as individuals and as a species, one among many. But perhaps their greatest subject was themselves. Alison Bashford's marvellously engaging and original new book interweaves the Huxleys' momentous public achievements with their private triumphs and tragedies. The result is the history of a family, but also a history of humanity grappling with its place in nature. This book shows how much we owe - for better or worse - to the unceasing curiosity, self-absorption and enthusiasms of a small, strange group of men and women.