The life of Charles Grover,
Victorian Astronomer

Charles Grover was born into a working-class household in Buckinghamshire in 1842 and apprenticed to a brush-maker from the age of 12.

From these unpromising beginnings he was to forge a career that would bring him to the notice of the foremost scientists of the Victorian age.

After viewing his first comet - Donati's in 1858 - Charles Grover turned his attention to astronomy. In 1882 he gambled his future on a trip to Australia, as assistant to Cuthbert Peek, heir to a baronetcy, to see the transit of Venus.

This book tells the story of a lifelong enthusiasm, success against the odds, and an extraordinary journey to view a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event on the other side of the world.