''Mr Darwin's Shooter'' is a 1998 novel by

Roger McDonald Hugh Roger McDonald (born 23 June 1941 in Young, New South Wales) is an Australian award-winning author of several novels and a number of non-fiction works. He is also an accomplished poet and TV scriptwriter. Life and career The middle son of ...

. It describes the life of

Syms Covington Syms Covington (1816–1861) was a fiddler and cabin boy on HMS ''Beagle'' who became an assistant to Charles Darwin and was appointed as his personal servant in 1833, continuing in Darwin's service after the voyage until 1839. Originally named ...

, manservant to

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

during Darwin's voyage aboard HMS ''Beagle''. The book deals with three periods of Covington's life: childhood, adolescence whilst on , and middle age, where Covington is struggling to deal with the conflict between his religious views and his role in the formulation of the theory of

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

. Among the many animals Syms Covington shot and prepared for Charles Darwin were the Galápagos finches, which became crucial for his

theory A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...

Awards and nominations

* 1999 NSW Premier's Award for Fiction, * 1999 Victorian Premier's Award for Fiction, * 2000 National Fiction Award, * 2000 SA Premier's Literary Award 1998 Australian novels Australian historical novels Novels set in the 19th century Cultural depictions of Charles Darwin {{1990s-hist-novel-stub