BookBrowse Reviews Earth by Richard Fortey

A fascinating geological exploration of the earth's distant history as revealed by its natural wonders. Science

From the book jacket: The face of the earth, crisscrossed by chains of mountains like the scars of old wounds, has changed and changed again over billions of years, and the testament of the remote past is all around us. In this book Richard Fortey teaches us how to read its character, laying out the dominions of the world before us. He shows how human culture and natural history – even the shape of cities – are rooted in this deep geological past ..... Nothing in this book is at rest. The surface of the earth dilates and collapses; seas and mountains rise and fall; continents move.

Comment: "It should be difficult to lose a mountain, but it happens all the time around the Bay of Naples."  Thus Fortey begins Earth: An Intimate History, described by reviewers as 'a tale of high drama', 'a treasure-house of mind-expanding lore', 'enthralling', 'a dazzling voyage of discovery' - and that's just a small taste of the glowing praise for Fortey, whom the Economist describes as 'the Raymond Chandler of science writing' and then goes on to say, 'his prose is angelic, his phrases well-turned. . . . And though Earth is no murder story, it is a mystery book and, in its own way, a thriller.'

This review first ran in the January 18, 2006 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.