The Evangelist - Softcover

'Few authors possess a grain of Clare George's intelligence, even fewer manage to splice a regularly amusing, often moving narrative with ideas of the range exhibited here. All of this is delivered with such wit and verve in a proper novel of ideas from a seriously talented writer.' -- Tom Boncza-Tomaszewski, Independent on Sunday 'Written with delicacy and grace, the portrait of Oldroyd the evangelising scientist is utterly believable, while the slow-burn dissolution of his marriage is heartbreakingly realistic. Well-researched, highlighting the destructive nature of intolerance on either side of the faith-science divide, this is a fine novel, rich in pathos and bittersweet tragedy, and providing no easy answers.' -- Time Out 'Sparkling and persuasive ... She is a talented writer with a sense of pace, plot and character.' -- Times Literary Supplement 'Insightful ... a book full of ideas and debates, moral ponderings and the grace of science ... written with such forceful intelligence.' -- Independent 'Ambitious and well crafted.' -- Sunday Times 'George is an expert at characterisation especially with the figure of Oldroyd who is complex and contradictory yet utterly believable. This is more a novel of ideas than a plot driven opus, but the eternal struggle of science versus religion is delicately and precisely examined without seeming overly stuffy or studious.' -- List

In 1978, Max Oldroyd, evolutionary biologist and author of a bestselling popular science book explaining evolution to the masses, embarks on a triumphant book-tour of the US - only to find himself humiliated, ridiculed and almost broken by a series of 'debates' in the Bible Belt staged by people trying to ban the teaching of evolution in schools. He returns to London a changed man, fired by a hatred of religion and all those who preach it. This is to cast a shadow over his life, and, over the years that follow, will tear his marriage apart, damage his career, shape the lives of his children, and finally destroy his relationship with his stepdaughter Cass - the girl who, above all, needed to believe in the power of nurture over nature. Now, as he approaches the end of his life, Max is determined to set down his memoirs, to sift facts from opinion, and use his experiences to 'prove' certain scientific truths. But Max is about to learn that the facts most difficult to reach are those we have to learn about ourselves.