Bone of contention - that is what the theory of evolution has been for over a century.

In March 1861 Charles Darwin wrote that he believed the theory, but acknowledged that he could not 'prove in any single case that [natural selection] has changed one species into another'. Yet the unproven theory came to be treated as fact.

But is it true? That is the question which Sylvia Baker examines here. A biology graduate of the University of Sussex, she had accepted and imbibed the evolutionary theory put to her at school and university ... until the sheer pressure of evidence forced her t rethink the whole question.

Here, in a fresh and clear style that avoids unnecessary technical terms, she sets out the evidence and her conclusions.