DAVID WHEELER
Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life
By Jason Roberts
riverrun £25
The year is 1707. Separated by some 700 miles (as the Corvus comix flies), two naturalists are born, destined for world fame.
Social climbing (sorry, mobility) saw their names elevated in search of greater status. Carl Linné’s father had already Latinised the family’s Swedish name to Linnaeus. George-Louis Leclerc, a salt-taxcollector’s son, in later life appended ‘de Buffon’ to his handle, echoing his origin in the ‘minuscule settlement’ in
