Darwin detested Australia. It's sometimes a hard fact to swallow, but a little easier to understand when you think about the hardships of the early colonists.

He described it as an "uninviting" land; the Blue Mountains in New South Wales as "exceedingly monotonous"; and Mount Wellington in Tasmania as having "little picturesque beauty". If that's how he found the natural wonders, just imagine how he described the people.

But his apparently dissatisfying time here in 1836 had a great influence on the development of his ideas about evolution. Evolution in the Antipodes details and describes Darwin's influence on Australia, and vice versa.

In a slight disconnect, this book also explores the almost-taboo topic of Darwin's personal reviews on religion and, as the work of an Anglican Bishop, also proposes what should be taught in Australian classrooms today (don't panic – he does support the study of evolution). Frame, also a professor of theology at Charles Sturt University, reveals a respect for science and the theory of natural selection.

Darwin's opinion on where religion fitted into his theory varied, but on his deathbed admitted there was room for God, says Frame. It's also of interest to note that it was Darwin's friend, Thomas Huxley, who coined the term 'agnostic' in 1869, for a person who believes we can never know whether there is a God or not.