4.6 billion years of the story of life on Earth, in 52,000 words. Brief, brilliant and entirely gripping.
Dr Henry Gee was born in 1962. He was educated at the universities of Leeds and Cambridge. For more than three decades he has been a writer and editor at the international science journal Nature. His previous books include The Accidental Species: Misunderstandings of Human Evolution; Across The Bridge: Understanding the Origin of the Vertebrates; Deep Time: Cladistics, the Revolution in Evolution; Jacob's Ladder: The History of the Human Genome; The Science of Middle-Earth, and (with Luis V. Rey) A Field Guide to Dinosaurs. He lives in Cromer, Norfolk, with his family and numerous pets.
My favourite book of the year and maybe the decade . . .
brilliantly funny and brilliantly informative . . . I shall read it
again and again
*Eric Idle, actor and comedian*
A scintillating, fast-paced waltz through four billion years of
evolution, from one of our leading science writers . . . His poetic
prose animates the history of life, from the first bacteria to
trilobites to dinosaurs to us.
*Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh paleontologist and
Sunday Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of
the Dinosaurs*
Exhilaratingly whizzes through billions of years . . . Gee is a
marvellously engaging writer, juggling humour, precision, polemic
and poetry to enrich his impossibly telescoped account . . .
[making] clear sense out of very complex narratives
*The Times*
This is now the best book available about the huge changes in our
planet and its living creatures, over the billions of years of the
Earth’s existence . . . Henry Gee makes this kaleidoscopically
changing canvas of life understandable and exciting. Who will enjoy
reading this book? Everybody!
*Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel*
Henry Gee’s whistle-stop account of the story of life (and death —
lots of death) on Earth is both fun and informative. Even better,
it goes beyond the natural human inclination to see ourselves as
special and puts us in our proper place in the cosmic scheme of
things
*John Gribbin*
Don’t miss this delightful, concise, sweeping masterpiece! Gee
brilliantly condenses the entire, improbable, astonishing history
of life on earth — all 5 billion years - into a charming, zippy and
scientifically accurate yarn.
*Daniel E. Lieberman, Professor of Biological Sciences, Harvard
University*
'Gee's prose is so infectiously enthusiastic, and his tone so
accessible, that you'll find yourself racing through as if you were
reading a novel - and you'll never find yourself scrambling for a
good fact to wheel out at an awkward pause in conversation
again.'
*Reader's Digest*
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