'Have you ever been aware of, or influenced by a presence or a power, whether you call it God or not, that is different from your everyday self?' Alister Hardy was the Head of the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in Oxford University from 1946 to 1961 and arguably the best known marine biologist in the world. Yet he was a man who lived an extraordinary double life. At one level, as a zoologist and steadfast Darwinian he was an eminent...