This is a strange and unclassifiable book which tells the story of
the early days of geology by focusing on a series of events
associated with the north east of England. The events themselves
seem disjointed - discoveries of fossils, stones falling from the
sky, alchemy, the voyages of James Cook. The style is also
disjointed - an uneasy mixture of fact and fiction, anecdote and
historical quotation. But the result is somehow greater than the
sum of its parts, providing an eclectic and readable, if patchy,
introduction to the geological sciences. And yes, there really is a
floating egg in the story - but you'll have to read the book to
find out its relevance to geology. (Kirkus UK)
Twenty-five stories, beginning with the search for an alchemist's secret, and ending with the re-imagination of a past world, each connected to a particular corner of north-east England, and each exploring the uncertain line where myth is dissolved into science, and belief gives way to knowledge. Different episodes show how the fall of Constantinople converted the common rock of the Yorkshire cliffs into a source of extraordinary wealth and power, and how this in turn uncovered the inhabitants of a succession of past worlds; how a stone falling from the sky near this same coast changed the minds of all the natural philosophers of Europe; and how a new science was born on the top of the tower of York Minster. We learn about the cloak-and-dagger world of fossil trading in the town of Whitby; and we see the entire life- work of a forgotten scientific genius who died from consumption at the age of twenty-five, having revolutionised his science. The stories move from documentary accounts to fictional recreations of history events, from contemporary writing and illustrations to present-day reflection. By using different ways to describing the world of scientific endeavour, the author has produced a fascinating visually beautiful and highly entertaining book.
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