Richard Fortey was a senior paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London until his retirement in 2006. He is the author of several books, including "Fossils: The Key to the Past; The Hidden Landscape, "which won the Natural World Book of the Year in 1993; "Life: A Natural History of Four Billion Years of Life on Earth; Trilobite!, "which was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize;" Earth: An Intimate History; "and "Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum." He has won the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing About Science from Rockefeller University and the Michael Faraday Prize from the Royal Society. He was president of the Geological Society of London during its bicentennial year in 2007 and is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in Oxfordshire.
"Mr. Fortey is as vivid and charming about live things as he's long
been about dead ones, perhaps even more so. Reading this book is
like stepping into the field with a man who's equal parts
naturalist and poet, equal parts E.O. Wilson and Paul Muldoon. It's
a bewitching combination . . . You begin to love Mr. Fortey as much
as he loves horseshoe crabs. You want to throw him over your
shoulder, like a big stuffed animal won at a fair, and lug him home
to explain the mysteries of your backyard . . . His book is not
only well built and witty but emotionally profound too . . . an
inducement to be as awake and observant as possible." --"The New
York Times"
"A lively writer with a penchant for slightly goofy jokes, a vast
storehouse of arcane knowledge, and an inexhaustible fund of
enthusiasm for his subject, Fortey is the perfect interpreter and
guide to the marvels and mysteries of archaic existence." --"The
Boston Globe"
"[A] delightful account . . . even those squeamish about worms will
find Fortey's enthusiastic excavations charming." --"PW"
(starred)
"In this fascinating, well-written book, [Fortey] offers a
worldwide tour of places whose lands and waters shelter
extraordinary forms of life that have overcome mass extinctions,
sea-level changes, ice ages and other obstacles to survive into the
present. Taking great joy in his trip back in time, Fortey plays
both adventurer and detective as he searches for these ancients . .
. Informative, engrossing and delightful." --"Kirkus "(starred
review)
"A magnificent book . . . Fortey's intense, humane passion for
everything that lives and has lived is amply proven on every page .
. . This book (like all his others) demonstrates that Fortey is,
principally, not a scientist who can write, but a writer who does
science." --"Literary Review"
"Erudite and engaging." --"Times Literary Supplement"
"A wide-ranging survey . . . Fortey keeps the long discussion
lighthearted . . . Instructive and entertaining." --"Booklist"
"Fortey leads us on a ramble that is not only global but takes us
through aeons, to look at creatures that haven't changed much for
hundreds of millions and in some cases billions of years . . . It's
a great story, and no one is better equipped to tell it than Fortey
. . . Excellent natural history." --"The Guardian"
"Fortey has a unique way with the most humble of life forms, an
infectious curiosity that can slide into near rapture, coupled with
a lack of presumption that many of his peers I the field of
evolutionary biology lack entirely."" --London Evening
Standard"
"An exploration of the world that went before. Fortey retains his
characteristic ability to paint vivid word pictures of times long
ago and places far away...Passionate, clear and comprehensive."
--"The Telegraph"
"Fortey tells a series of fascinating stories that serve to bring
alive what is for most of us an unfamiliar past. Under his
tutelage, fossils of all kinds--survivors or not--seem to come
alive." --"Financial Times"
"[A] delightful account . . . even those squeamish about worms will
find Fortey's enthusiastic excavations charming." --"PW"
(starred)
"In this fascinating, well-written book, [Fortey] offers a
worldwide tour of places whose lands and waters shelter
extraordinary forms of life that have overcome mass extinctions,
sea-level changes, ice ages and other obstacles to survive into the
present. Taking great joy in his trip back in time, Fortey plays
both adventurer and detective as he searches for these ancients . .
. Informative, engrossing and delightful." --"Kirkus "(starred
review)
"A magnificent book . . . Fortey's intense, humane passion for
everything that lives and has lived is amply proven on every page .
. . This book (like all his others) demonstrates that Fortey is,
principally, not a scientist who can write, but a writer who does
science." --"Literary Review"
"Erudite and engaging." --"Times Literary Supplement"
"A wide-ranging survey . . . Fortey keeps the long discussion
lighthearted . . . Instructive and entertaining." --"Booklist"
"Fortey leads us on a ramble that is not only global but takes us
through aeons, to look at creatures that haven't changed much for
hundreds of millions and in some cases billions of years . . . It's
a great story, and no one is better equipped to tell it than Fortey
. . . Excellent natural history." --"The Guardian"
"Fortey has a unique way with the most humble of life forms, an
infectious curiosity that can slide into near rapture, coupled with
a lack of presumption that many of his peers I the field of
evolutionary biology lack entirely."" --London Evening
Standard"
"An exploration of the world that went before. Fortey retains his
characteristic ability to paint vivid word pictures of times long
ago and places far away...Passionate, clear and comprehensive."
--"The Telegraph"
"Fortey tells a series of fascinating stories that serve to bring
alive what is for most o
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