Richard Fortey - The Hidden Landscape: A Journey into the Geological Past
Here you can read online Richard Fortey - The Hidden Landscape: A Journey into the Geological Past full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2010, publisher: Bodley Head, genre: Art. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:
Romance novel
Science fiction
Adventure
Detective
Science
History
Home and family
Prose
Art
Politics
Computer
Non-fiction
Religion
Business
Children
Humor
Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.
- Book:The Hidden Landscape: A Journey into the Geological Past
- Author:
- Publisher:Bodley Head
- Genre:
- Year:2010
- Rating:4 / 5
- Favourites:Add to favourites
- Your mark:
The Hidden Landscape: A Journey into the Geological Past: summary, description and annotation
We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "The Hidden Landscape: A Journey into the Geological Past" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.
Richard Fortey: author's other books
Who wrote The Hidden Landscape: A Journey into the Geological Past? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.
The Hidden Landscape: A Journey into the Geological Past — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work
Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The Hidden Landscape: A Journey into the Geological Past" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.
Font size:
Interval:
Bookmark:
A Journey into the Geological Past
RICHARD FORTEY
This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781409087694
www.randomhouse.co.uk
Published by The Bodley Head 2010
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Copyright Richard Fortey 2010
Richard Fortey has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
This edition published in Great Britain in 2010 by The Bodley Head
Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SWIV 2SA
First published in Great Britain in 1993 by Jonathan Cape www.bodleyhead.co.uk www.rbooks.co.uk
Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at: www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm
The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781847920713
The Random House Group Limited supports The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the leading international forest certification organisation. All our titles that are printed on Greenpeace approved FSC certified paper carry the FSC logo. Our paper procurement policy can be found at www.rbooks.co.uk/environment
Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Grangemouth, Stirlingshire
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives PLC
For Rebecca, with love
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Life: An Unauthorized Biography (1997)
Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution (2000)
Fossils: The Key to the Past (4th edition, 2009)
Earth: An Intimate History (2004)
Dry Store Room No. (2008)
The Geological map of Britain and Ireland (Geological Mapping, BGS NERC, Ordnance Survey Topography Crown Copyright. All rights reserved.
Index Map (BGS NERC, Topography HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2005)
The first edition of The Hidden Landscape was commissioned by Heather Godwin. Heather has been a supportive friend and a perceptive critic through four subsequent books. This new edition was suggested by Will Sulkin, at The Bodley Head. Kay Peddle handled the editing of this updated version with patience and good humour. Several of my colleagues at the Natural History Museum were most helpful in the original production. I should mention Robin Cocks particularly, who read the first manuscript and improved it in several ways. The British Geological Survey has been an excellent source of illustrations, as in the previous edition, and their Picture Library is gratefully acknowledged. Jo Desmond and Derek Siveter kindly supplied additional photographs. But the greatest contribution to this edition came from my wife Jacqueline, who not only read through the text with care, but also helped to update the whole book. She took many of the photographs used in this edition as we travelled around Britain. I dont believe it would have happened without her.
The recent popularisation of science is part of a modern passion for explanation. Most books in this genre are concerned with exposing the mechanics of the space/time continuum, or the workings of the body, by stripping down the complexity of the world to its components. The intention is to show that, deep down, everything is readily comprehensible. At the end one is much the wiser, but as when a complex conjuring trick is explained as a mere mechanical contrivance there lingers a vague feeling of disappointment. Somehow, the enjoyment of the trick is more satisfying than the explanation.
When Heather Godwin asked me to write a book with the geology of Britain as its theme I decided to avoid the purely analytical path. Instead, what I wish to explore are the connections between geology and landscape the deeper, geological reality that underpins natural history, and even our own activities. I want to celebrate the richness of the geological history of our islands, and to show how events that happened hundreds of millions of years ago still control the lie of the land and the plants that grow upon it. The intention is to enrich the readers awareness of our extraordinary past.
This intention makes my geology a more personal account. I will explore curious byways of the landscape as much as narrating its geological history. Jacquetta Hawkess book, A Land, was published more than half a century ago. It was one of the books that inspired me to take up science; the facts on which that book was based are now somewhat out of date, but the inspiration remains. If I can stimulate a sense of wonder in a similar way, this book will have succeeded.
There has to be an historical narrative, which, as it happens, runs broadly in tandem with the geography of Britain. Lying beneath the thin skin of recorded history in our islands, geology has the same role in landscape as does the unconscious mind in psychology: ubiquitous but concealed. This is the hidden landscape.
The Hidden Landscape is seventeen years old in 2010. Fortunately, my approach to understanding the landscape and history of Britain still remains appropriate today. After all, the rocks do not change, and geological time is indifferent to mere decades. I have been encouraged by letters from readers who have found that an understanding of the geological underpinning of our landscape has added to their appreciation of the countryside. Indeed, a few of those who read this book have been inspired to undertake formal study of geology.
Scientific understanding of many aspects of British geology has continued to develop, as should happen in any discipline. Now that I have an opportunity to produce this second edition I can introduce some new geological facts where appropriate, and correct a few mistakes that survived from before. I have added a new final chapter reflecting on how our future exploitation of the landscape might still respect the geological truth beneath.
Towns are not necessarily in opposition to the natural landscape: those that grow naturally out of the local geology seem to sit comfortably within it. We are fortunate in Britain in having a wonderfully complex patchwork quilt of geology, and that is partly why our ancient towns and villages are so various and so delightful. Respect for the hidden landscape was once a matter of local convenience, but now must be a matter of choice as building methods have become so homogenized. The richness of the landscape of our islands is one of the things that makes life worth living, and that is all down to the geology.
Font size:
Interval:
Bookmark:
Similar books «The Hidden Landscape: A Journey into the Geological Past»
Look at similar books to The Hidden Landscape: A Journey into the Geological Past. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.
Discussion, reviews of the book The Hidden Landscape: A Journey into the Geological Past and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.