Awards

• Short-listed for Rhone-Poulenc Science Books Prize 1998
• Shortlisted for Rhone-Poulenc Science Books Prize 1998.

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9780006384205

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Reviews

'This is not a book for people who like science books. It is a book for people who love books, and life... [Fortey] has written a wonderful book.' Tim Radford, Guardian 'Read this book because it is, indeed, the best natural history of the first four billion years of life on earth.' John Gribbin, Sunday Times 'Fortey writes beautifully and this is a wonderful biography of rock and life... He has restored palaeontology to its rightful place in the pantheon.' Lewis Wolpert, Observer 'Richard Fortey is a scientist... but his big, rich history of four billion years of evolution is written with an artist's zest for life and language... In his last chapter Fortey quotes Goethe: Zum Erstaunen bin ich da - I am here to wonder. Richard Fortey has the rare gift of making his readers share that wonder. Anyone who wants to understand how we came to be here on earth, 4,000,000,000 years after life began, should read this sparkling book.' Maggie Gere, Daily Telegraph 'The tale of life needs constant retelling. Thank some happy accident of history that we have Fortey to tell it to us anew.' Ted Nield, New Scientist

The best book about the 4-billion-year history of life on Earth. Fortey works at the Natural History Museum in London and has been a palaeontologist for 30 years. A great deal in earth sciences involves fieldwork; the painstaking and exhilarating documentation of the natural world that inspires many a young scientist. It has given the author of this remarkable book a clear and different perspective in his history of the natural world. This is no dry recital of the facts of the past 4000 million years, but a lively and highly personal account involving literature, gardening and even the author's cat, Felix. Fortey includes aspects of his experience as well as images and ideas from all walks of life to produce a book that reads like a slightly racy biography. For a combination of fascinating science, travelogue, entertaining character sketches and sometimes laugh-out-loud personal anecdotes, there is nothing to match it. And you thought palaeontology was dull! This is a book about the excitement and passion of discovery, and the fact that the discoveries are in science is almost incidental to the pursuit - precisely the same drives motivate great artists, as well as great scientists, and Fortey goes a long way towards dispelling the myth of the cold- blooded scientist. (Kirkus UK)

'This is not a book for people who like science books. It is a book for people who love books, and life! [Fortey] has written a wonderful book.' Tim Radford, Guardian 'Read this book because it is, indeed, the best natural history of the first four billion years of life on earth.' John Gribbin, Sunday Times 'Fortey writes beautifully and this is a wonderful biography of rock and life! He has restored palaeontology to its rightful place in the pantheon.' Lewis Wolpert, Observer 'Richard Fortey is a scientist! but his big, rich history of four billion years of evolution is written with an artist's zest for life and language! In his last chapter Fortey quotes Goethe: Zum Erstaunen bin ich da -- I am here to wonder. Richard Fortey has the rare gift of making his readers share that wonder. Anyone who wants to understand how we came to be here on earth, 4,000,000,000 years after life began, should read this sparkling book.' Maggie Gere, Daily Telegraph 'The tale of life needs constant retelling. Thank some happy accident of history that we have Fortey to tell it to us anew.' Ted Nield, New Scientist

Author Information

Richard Fortey retired from his position as senior palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in 2006. His previous books include the critically acclaimed Life: An Unauthorized Biography, shortlisted for the Rhône-Poulenc Prize in 1998, Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2001, The Hidden Landscape, which won the Natural World Book of the Year in 1993 and Fossils - A Key to the Past which is now in its third edition. He also won the Lewis Thomas Prize for Science Writing in 2003. He was Collier Professor for the Public Understanding of Science in 2002, has been elected to be President of the Geological Society of London for its bicentennial year of 2007, and is a member of the Royal Society. His latest book is Dry Store Room no 1 – The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum.

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