Stolen Darwin notebooks returned

Prized manuscripts returned - 16th May 2022

After 22 years, a pair of leather-encased notebooks, suspected of being lost forever, have turned up at their former home – the Cambridge University library. The manuscripts contain the scribbles and musings of naturalist Charles Darwin, including an early sketch of the scientist's iconic 'tree of life' image, and are said to be worth millions.

Although the notebooks had been unaccounted for for such a long period, librarians initially presumed the postcard-sized journals to have been misfiled within the library complex. Their return comes just 15 months after they'd first been reported stolen and a global appeal launched to pinpoint their whereabouts. "They're safe, they're in good condition, they're home," declared librarian Dr Jessica Gardner, who added,"I feel joyous."

Details of the recovery are shrouded in mystery, as the notepads were anonymously deposited outside Dr Gardner's office. Located in a section of the library open to public access but unmonitored by CCTV cameras, they'd been placed in a luminous pink gift bag containing the books' original blue box. The items themselves were snugly wrapped in cling film, inside a brown envelope bearing the succinct, computer-written note: "Librarian, Happy Easter X."

"I was shaking," comments Dr Gardner of her reaction to first spotting the package, adding that she was also wary "because until we could unwrap them, you can't be 100 percent sure."

Dating from the latter part of the 1830s, in the wake of Darwin's expedition to the Galapagos Islands, the notebooks contain a spindly hand-drawn image of a tree. 20 years down the line, this would become a central theory of the scientist's seminal work on natural selection, 'On the Origin of Species', widely considered pivotal in evolutionary science.

While the prized notebooks are at present carefully stashed away in the library strongroom, they're soon to be exhibited to the public at an admission-free event entitled 'Darwin in Conversation'. An air of mystery still surrounds them, however, as the identity of the original thief, as well as the person who returned them, remain a complete enigma.