Earth in all its majesty, 27 Mar 2008
Beautiful book and, like the TV series, is a well presented and informative guide to our planet, its formation and also addresses the problems that may occur from the legacy of human impact.

Husband loved it, 04 Mar 2008
My husband was glued to the tv series so i decided to get the book for Xmas for him,thought it wouldn't contain much extra info but he thinks its best book hes ever read and it certainly made him stop and think about the planet and what a fragile place we really live on!
On his 2nd read of it now!!

Wow!!!!, 05 Jan 2008
If you loved the series shown on bbc2 a few weeks ago, I guarantee you'll love this book. I've just received my copy today and I've only read a few pages but wow the stuff and information in it fabulous and awesome images. If you're into your volcanoes, impacts, earthquakes etc. Like I am :) I'd definitely forward this book to you.

Mind boggling!, 09 Dec 2007
This book ties in to the excellent TV series Earth Power of the Planet with the Scottish presenter Ian Stewart. It covers a mind boggling 5 BILLION years of the earth's history and looks at how the planet functions and the threat of global warming. I'm pleased to say the book has all the pace and energy of the series - Stewart has a good knack of making the science understandable. A great introduction to a truly fascinating subject. Amazing pictures too.

Earth in all its majesty, 27 Mar 2008
Beautiful book and, like the TV series, is a well presented and informative guide to our planet, its formation and also addresses the problems that may occur from the legacy of human impact.

Husband loved it, 04 Mar 2008
My husband was glued to the tv series so i decided to get the book for Xmas for him,thought it wouldn't contain much extra info but he thinks its best book hes ever read and it certainly made him stop and think about the planet and what a fragile place we really live on!
On his 2nd read of it now!!

Wow!!!!, 05 Jan 2008
If you loved the series shown on bbc2 a few weeks ago, I guarantee you'll love this book. I've just received my copy today and I've only read a few pages but wow the stuff and information in it fabulous and awesome images. If you're into your volcanoes, impacts, earthquakes etc. Like I am :) I'd definitely forward this book to you.

Mind boggling!, 09 Dec 2007
This book ties in to the excellent TV series Earth Power of the Planet with the Scottish presenter Ian Stewart. It covers a mind boggling 5 BILLION years of the earth's history and looks at how the planet functions and the threat of global warming. I'm pleased to say the book has all the pace and energy of the series - Stewart has a good knack of making the science understandable. A great introduction to a truly fascinating subject. Amazing pictures too.

excellent book a must for a physical geography degree, 27 Sep 2008
I lost count how many times that I consulted a this book whilst doing a module called Landscape Development in my second year at Staffs Uni. Summerfield is one of the leaders in global geomorphology and my lecturer used to cream in her pants when ever you used either this book or one of his articles in my reference list at the end of an essay or report. If you study physical geography you need this.

Useful Reader, 04 Aug 2005
This book is a very useful and helpful introduction book for Physical Geography with regards to Geomorph - well written and very informative without being over the top in excessive details. Clear & comprehensible.

Geomorpholgy!, 31 Aug 2003
A must for undergraduate physical geography students. A comprehensive text that explains most of the processes and landforms studied at undergraduate level. But not to be used as a stand alone text, you will still have to trawl through journals for the in depth research.

Must have for Physical Geography Degrees, 28 Feb 2000
If you are doing or thinking of doing a Physical geography degree, this book is a must have. It goes into sufficient depth, while it is still fairly easy to understand. I guarrantee it will be on your reading lists.

Earth in all its majesty, 27 Mar 2008
Beautiful book and, like the TV series, is a well presented and informative guide to our planet, its formation and also addresses the problems that may occur from the legacy of human impact.

Husband loved it, 04 Mar 2008
My husband was glued to the tv series so i decided to get the book for Xmas for him,thought it wouldn't contain much extra info but he thinks its best book hes ever read and it certainly made him stop and think about the planet and what a fragile place we really live on!
On his 2nd read of it now!!

Wow!!!!, 05 Jan 2008
If you loved the series shown on bbc2 a few weeks ago, I guarantee you'll love this book. I've just received my copy today and I've only read a few pages but wow the stuff and information in it fabulous and awesome images. If you're into your volcanoes, impacts, earthquakes etc. Like I am :) I'd definitely forward this book to you.

Mind boggling!, 09 Dec 2007
This book ties in to the excellent TV series Earth Power of the Planet with the Scottish presenter Ian Stewart. It covers a mind boggling 5 BILLION years of the earth's history and looks at how the planet functions and the threat of global warming. I'm pleased to say the book has all the pace and energy of the series - Stewart has a good knack of making the science understandable. A great introduction to a truly fascinating subject. Amazing pictures too.

excellent book a must for a physical geography degree, 27 Sep 2008
I lost count how many times that I consulted a this book whilst doing a module called Landscape Development in my second year at Staffs Uni. Summerfield is one of the leaders in global geomorphology and my lecturer used to cream in her pants when ever you used either this book or one of his articles in my reference list at the end of an essay or report. If you study physical geography you need this.

Useful Reader, 04 Aug 2005
This book is a very useful and helpful introduction book for Physical Geography with regards to Geomorph - well written and very informative without being over the top in excessive details. Clear & comprehensible.

Geomorpholgy!, 31 Aug 2003
A must for undergraduate physical geography students. A comprehensive text that explains most of the processes and landforms studied at undergraduate level. But not to be used as a stand alone text, you will still have to trawl through journals for the in depth research.

Must have for Physical Geography Degrees, 28 Feb 2000
If you are doing or thinking of doing a Physical geography degree, this book is a must have. It goes into sufficient depth, while it is still fairly easy to understand. I guarrantee it will be on your reading lists.

The Grandest Quadrille, 31 Mar 2008
"Did the Earth move for you?", asks the voice beside you. Well, yes. Because that's what it does. All the time. The continent you live on used to be someplace else, and far away from where it is now. Your home ground has even been part of a greater landmass known as a "supercontinent" - and will be again. Hence, the title of this book. Ted Nield provides us with a fine account of how we came to learn about these movements. He has brought together the years of research tracking where the rocks have been and where they are likely to go. He likens the movement of continents to a dance of landforms - a "Grand Quadrille". A fine synopsis of the history of geology and its compelling figures - scholars who had to project what was known in their time back into a distant past.

Earth has been a busy place for the past four billion years, and it hasn't stopped to rest. We speak of the "firmness of the Earth", but that phrase is a sham. The key figure in this story is the great supercontinent of Pangaea that began breaking up 250 million years ago. Assembled from previous continents that had once joined and also separated, Pangaea's breakup into places we live on today have been traced in exquisite detail. The matching of rocks in places separated by wide seas provided the clues. In fact, as Nield relates, it was the vast Atlantic that bears the responsibility for Pangaea's fracturing to form the basis for the continents we know today. The author explains how the continents have been engaging in a Grand Quadrille and will continue to do so - for another five billion years, at least.

The progenitor of the idea of "drifting continents" was Alfred Wegener. Using maps to show how western Eurasia and Africa matched the east coasts of the Western Hemisphere, Wegener proposed they had once been joined, but had pulled apart. He couldn't provide a mechanism for the movement, and his idea was rejected - most notably by the geologic "establishment" of the United States. Rejection of the proposal was so strong there that one British geologist described it as "regarding the Declaration of Independence as retroactive to the Palaeozoic". Continents formed separately and remained so through time, it was thought.

However, one US dissident, Reginald Daly of Harvard, had been in South Africa, encountering the work of Alexander du Toit, who noted similarities in rocks of the Great Karoo and South America. That discovery, enhanced by some detailed measurements in Greenland, suggested that movement was occurring. It took a war and the hunt for submarines to reveal what prompted continental movement. An Irish geophysicist, John Joly had already postulated the mechanism, heat from radioactive elements deep in the Earth required escape. That venting pushed the softer areas in the Earth's crust around. Sitting atop that stirring material, the continents track the flow patterns of the heat.

In moving, the continents encounter each other, joining, fusing and establishing mighty landmasses that break up again. Nield skilfully describes the mechanisms and the people who have read the rocks to understand how they work. Beyond Pangaea, for example, the author cites the work of Mark McMenamin, who proposes a yet older supercontinent, Rodinia. Rodinia's importance in the history of the Earth is that it was probably the extant landform around which complex life, after over 3 billion years, finally emerged. Nield's skill in presenting all these complex ideas and their significance never wanes throughout the book. He's achieved a fine summary of the history of modern geology, supported by a collection of portraits and some line drawings. The emphasis on Pangaea is slightly overdone, but his pointer to Chris Scotese's web page of geologic ages more than overcomes that small limitation. An excellent overview. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Earth in all its majesty, 27 Mar 2008
Beautiful book and, like the TV series, is a well presented and informative guide to our planet, its formation and also addresses the problems that may occur from the legacy of human impact.

Husband loved it, 04 Mar 2008
My husband was glued to the tv series so i decided to get the book for Xmas for him,thought it wouldn't contain much extra info but he thinks its best book hes ever read and it certainly made him stop and think about the planet and what a fragile place we really live on!
On his 2nd read of it now!!

Wow!!!!, 05 Jan 2008
If you loved the series shown on bbc2 a few weeks ago, I guarantee you'll love this book. I've just received my copy today and I've only read a few pages but wow the stuff and information in it fabulous and awesome images. If you're into your volcanoes, impacts, earthquakes etc. Like I am :) I'd definitely forward this book to you.

Mind boggling!, 09 Dec 2007
This book ties in to the excellent TV series Earth Power of the Planet with the Scottish presenter Ian Stewart. It covers a mind boggling 5 BILLION years of the earth's history and looks at how the planet functions and the threat of global warming. I'm pleased to say the book has all the pace and energy of the series - Stewart has a good knack of making the science understandable. A great introduction to a truly fascinating subject. Amazing pictures too.

excellent book a must for a physical geography degree, 27 Sep 2008
I lost count how many times that I consulted a this book whilst doing a module called Landscape Development in my second year at Staffs Uni. Summerfield is one of the leaders in global geomorphology and my lecturer used to cream in her pants when ever you used either this book or one of his articles in my reference list at the end of an essay or report. If you study physical geography you need this.

Useful Reader, 04 Aug 2005
This book is a very useful and helpful introduction book for Physical Geography with regards to Geomorph - well written and very informative without being over the top in excessive details. Clear & comprehensible.

Geomorpholgy!, 31 Aug 2003
A must for undergraduate physical geography students. A comprehensive text that explains most of the processes and landforms studied at undergraduate level. But not to be used as a stand alone text, you will still have to trawl through journals for the in depth research.

Must have for Physical Geography Degrees, 28 Feb 2000
If you are doing or thinking of doing a Physical geography degree, this book is a must have. It goes into sufficient depth, while it is still fairly easy to understand. I guarrantee it will be on your reading lists.

The Grandest Quadrille, 31 Mar 2008
"Did the Earth move for you?", asks the voice beside you. Well, yes. Because that's what it does. All the time. The continent you live on used to be someplace else, and far away from where it is now. Your home ground has even been part of a greater landmass known as a "supercontinent" - and will be again. Hence, the title of this book. Ted Nield provides us with a fine account of how we came to learn about these movements. He has brought together the years of research tracking where the rocks have been and where they are likely to go. He likens the movement of continents to a dance of landforms - a "Grand Quadrille". A fine synopsis of the history of geology and its compelling figures - scholars who had to project what was known in their time back into a distant past.

Earth has been a busy place for the past four billion years, and it hasn't stopped to rest. We speak of the "firmness of the Earth", but that phrase is a sham. The key figure in this story is the great supercontinent of Pangaea that began breaking up 250 million years ago. Assembled from previous continents that had once joined and also separated, Pangaea's breakup into places we live on today have been traced in exquisite detail. The matching of rocks in places separated by wide seas provided the clues. In fact, as Nield relates, it was the vast Atlantic that bears the responsibility for Pangaea's fracturing to form the basis for the continents we know today. The author explains how the continents have been engaging in a Grand Quadrille and will continue to do so - for another five billion years, at least.

The progenitor of the idea of "drifting continents" was Alfred Wegener. Using maps to show how western Eurasia and Africa matched the east coasts of the Western Hemisphere, Wegener proposed they had once been joined, but had pulled apart. He couldn't provide a mechanism for the movement, and his idea was rejected - most notably by the geologic "establishment" of the United States. Rejection of the proposal was so strong there that one British geologist described it as "regarding the Declaration of Independence as retroactive to the Palaeozoic". Continents formed separately and remained so through time, it was thought.

However, one US dissident, Reginald Daly of Harvard, had been in South Africa, encountering the work of Alexander du Toit, who noted similarities in rocks of the Great Karoo and South America. That discovery, enhanced by some detailed measurements in Greenland, suggested that movement was occurring. It took a war and the hunt for submarines to reveal what prompted continental movement. An Irish geophysicist, John Joly had already postulated the mechanism, heat from radioactive elements deep in the Earth required escape. That venting pushed the softer areas in the Earth's crust around. Sitting atop that stirring material, the continents track the flow patterns of the heat.

In moving, the continents encounter each other, joining, fusing and establishing mighty landmasses that break up again. Nield skilfully describes the mechanisms and the people who have read the rocks to understand how they work. Beyond Pangaea, for example, the author cites the work of Mark McMenamin, who proposes a yet older supercontinent, Rodinia. Rodinia's importance in the history of the Earth is that it was probably the extant landform around which complex life, after over 3 billion years, finally emerged. Nield's skill in presenting all these complex ideas and their significance never wanes throughout the book. He's achieved a fine summary of the history of modern geology, supported by a collection of portraits and some line drawings. The emphasis on Pangaea is slightly overdone, but his pointer to Chris Scotese's web page of geologic ages more than overcomes that small limitation. An excellent overview. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A good book which could become a great one, 09 Sep 2004
The book is excellently presented, with plenty of diagrams and photographs to clarify points made in the text. It is well written but, considering it is produced with the lay person in mind it is easy to become lost in the blizzard of facts, figures and events which are presented on many pages.

The one-page diagram of the Geological time scale is great. The book would be so much easier to digest if other such information was displayed on one page (even as an appendix) for the movement of continents around the planet. Similarly for a table of the various events and the dates they occurred in Britain. Trying to keep track of it all from the text is bemusing.

The glossary, too, could be significantly expanded; as it is it's woefully inadequate and seems arbitrary. For example, dolerite is included, but not dolomite. It is far from clear why. Bearing in mind this book is primarily for lay persons it's almost impossible to remember where you last saw the term, say, ophiolite, when you see it again in the text, so you can check its meaning. A more complete glossary would eradicate this problem.

This is a great book. With additions to make it easier to cross-reference terms and events it could be a 'classic' for lay people with an interest in geology

The Geology of Britain, 17 Mar 2003
I borrowed this book from the school library for months finding it an invaluable resource in my A2 level work. I now own my own copy of this excellant book which clearly details what Britain was like, its paleogeography and its rock strata in each of the geological time periods. My only fault is that a glossery would be great but otherwise this book is worthy of the full five stars.

A great well-produced introduction, 07 Jan 2003
I bought this book because I was wanted a light introduction to the geology of the UK – nothing too technical, preferably with illustrations to make the points, and hopefully with a sense of narrative to bring 2,000 million years of geological history to life.

This book delivered. I'm not a geologist, so I can't say whether Peter Toghill incorporated the latest evidence or did justice to the complexities of geological debate that I'm sure exist, but he certainly provided the level of answers that I was looking for.

This is a work that inspired me to read more. What better praise for a self-professed introductiory work!

Great book : very clear explanations and figures., 02 Aug 2001
When I was at school the little geology I learned was awfully boring: just the accumulation of layers and layers of stuff over millions of years. But this book has now turned me into a geology fanatic. It explains in historical sequence how the geological formations of Britain have come about. Even with little prior knowledge it is very easy to read (I thought), and I am particularly fond of all the many very well designed colour figures that are a terrific aid in understanding the variouses processes. Whole-heartedly recommended to anyone who's ever wondered why the rocks around the corner from his place look the way they look!

Great historical guide to regional geology, 06 Mar 2000
This book provides a fairly in-depth historical account of the processes and events which shaped the various lumps of rock we call Britain over geological time.

Each chapter deals with a particular period, and describes what was going on in each region. This means the emphasis is on describing the characteristics of each period rather than on the particular history of one region.

As a geology student (OU s260 this year, hello everyone), I've found this book really useful for getting a handle on the different periods - it does a good job of emphasising and contrasting each period's particular features. I feel I have some understanding of what differentiates the Devonian from the Silurian. I even know how long ago they were!

So why not five stars?

Firstly, the book makes little attempt to explain some of the terms it uses as it goes along. For a beginner, that can make it a bit of a slog at first. Having said that, you soon become used to the language and the second time you read it will be a lot more fun than the first.

Secondly, I'd have liked an additional chapter which gave a summary of the complete geological history of each of the regions. It would be nice to have been able to read in three or four paragraphs an overview of how Scotland happened. I think this would have been quite easy to do, and would have provided some useful broad context for the rest of the book.

Having said all this, the book is very useful, very informative, and packed full of exactly the sort of stuff you're interested in if you're reading a review of a book about Geology anyway!

Earth in all its majesty, 27 Mar 2008
Beautiful book and, like the TV series, is a well presented and informative guide to our planet, its formation and also addresses the problems that may occur from the legacy of human impact.

Husband loved it, 04 Mar 2008
My husband was glued to the tv series so i decided to get the book for Xmas for him,thought it wouldn't contain much extra info but he thinks its best book hes ever read and it certainly made him stop and think about the planet and what a fragile place we really live on!
On his 2nd read of it now!!

Wow!!!!, 05 Jan 2008
If you loved the series shown on bbc2 a few weeks ago, I guarantee you'll love this book. I've just received my copy today and I've only read a few pages but wow the stuff and information in it fabulous and awesome images. If you're into your volcanoes, impacts, earthquakes etc. Like I am :) I'd definitely forward this book to you.

Mind boggling!, 09 Dec 2007
This book ties in to the excellent TV series Earth Power of the Planet with the Scottish presenter Ian Stewart. It covers a mind boggling 5 BILLION years of the earth's history and looks at how the planet functions and the threat of global warming. I'm pleased to say the book has all the pace and energy of the series - Stewart has a good knack of making the science understandable. A great introduction to a truly fascinating subject. Amazing pictures too.

excellent book a must for a physical geography degree, 27 Sep 2008
I lost count how many times that I consulted a this book whilst doing a module called Landscape Development in my second year at Staffs Uni. Summerfield is one of the leaders in global geomorphology and my lecturer used to cream in her pants when ever you used either this book or one of his articles in my reference list at the end of an essay or report. If you study physical geography you need this.

Useful Reader, 04 Aug 2005
This book is a very useful and helpful introduction book for Physical Geography with regards to Geomorph - well written and very informative without being over the top in excessive details. Clear & comprehensible.

Geomorpholgy!, 31 Aug 2003
A must for undergraduate physical geography students. A comprehensive text that explains most of the processes and landforms studied at undergraduate level. But not to be used as a stand alone text, you will still have to trawl through journals for the in depth research.

Must have for Physical Geography Degrees, 28 Feb 2000
If you are doing or thinking of doing a Physical geography degree, this book is a must have. It goes into sufficient depth, while it is still fairly easy to understand. I guarrantee it will be on your reading lists.

The Grandest Quadrille, 31 Mar 2008
"Did the Earth move for you?", asks the voice beside you. Well, yes. Because that's what it does. All the time. The continent you live on used to be someplace else, and far away from where it is now. Your home ground has even been part of a greater landmass known as a "supercontinent" - and will be again. Hence, the title of this book. Ted Nield provides us with a fine account of how we came to learn about these movements. He has brought together the years of research tracking where the rocks have been and where they are likely to go. He likens the movement of continents to a dance of landforms - a "Grand Quadrille". A fine synopsis of the history of geology and its compelling figures - scholars who had to project what was known in their time back into a distant past.

Earth has been a busy place for the past four billion years, and it hasn't stopped to rest. We speak of the "firmness of the Earth", but that phrase is a sham. The key figure in this story is the great supercontinent of Pangaea that began breaking up 250 million years ago. Assembled from previous continents that had once joined and also separated, Pangaea's breakup into places we live on today have been traced in exquisite detail. The matching of rocks in places separated by wide seas provided the clues. In fact, as Nield relates, it was the vast Atlantic that bears the responsibility for Pangaea's fracturing to form the basis for the continents we know today. The author explains how the continents have been engaging in a Grand Quadrille and will continue to do so - for another five billion years, at least.

The progenitor of the idea of "drifting continents" was Alfred Wegener. Using maps to show how western Eurasia and Africa matched the east coasts of the Western Hemisphere, Wegener proposed they had once been joined, but had pulled apart. He couldn't provide a mechanism for the movement, and his idea was rejected - most notably by the geologic "establishment" of the United States. Rejection of the proposal was so strong there that one British geologist described it as "regarding the Declaration of Independence as retroactive to the Palaeozoic". Continents formed separately and remained so through time, it was thought.

However, one US dissident, Reginald Daly of Harvard, had been in South Africa, encountering the work of Alexander du Toit, who noted similarities in rocks of the Great Karoo and South America. That discovery, enhanced by some detailed measurements in Greenland, suggested that movement was occurring. It took a war and the hunt for submarines to reveal what prompted continental movement. An Irish geophysicist, John Joly had already postulated the mechanism, heat from radioactive elements deep in the Earth required escape. That venting pushed the softer areas in the Earth's crust around. Sitting atop that stirring material, the continents track the flow patterns of the heat.

In moving, the continents encounter each other, joining, fusing and establishing mighty landmasses that break up again. Nield skilfully describes the mechanisms and the people who have read the rocks to understand how they work. Beyond Pangaea, for example, the author cites the work of Mark McMenamin, who proposes a yet older supercontinent, Rodinia. Rodinia's importance in the history of the Earth is that it was probably the extant landform around which complex life, after over 3 billion years, finally emerged. Nield's skill in presenting all these complex ideas and their significance never wanes throughout the book. He's achieved a fine summary of the history of modern geology, supported by a collection of portraits and some line drawings. The emphasis on Pangaea is slightly overdone, but his pointer to Chris Scotese's web page of geologic ages more than overcomes that small limitation. An excellent overview. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A good book which could become a great one, 09 Sep 2004
The book is excellently presented, with plenty of diagrams and photographs to clarify points made in the text. It is well written but, considering it is produced with the lay person in mind it is easy to become lost in the blizzard of facts, figures and events which are presented on many pages.

The one-page diagram of the Geological time scale is great. The book would be so much easier to digest if other such information was displayed on one page (even as an appendix) for the movement of continents around the planet. Similarly for a table of the various events and the dates they occurred in Britain. Trying to keep track of it all from the text is bemusing.

The glossary, too, could be significantly expanded; as it is it's woefully inadequate and seems arbitrary. For example, dolerite is included, but not dolomite. It is far from clear why. Bearing in mind this book is primarily for lay persons it's almost impossible to remember where you last saw the term, say, ophiolite, when you see it again in the text, so you can check its meaning. A more complete glossary would eradicate this problem.

This is a great book. With additions to make it easier to cross-reference terms and events it could be a 'classic' for lay people with an interest in geology

The Geology of Britain, 17 Mar 2003
I borrowed this book from the school library for months finding it an invaluable resource in my A2 level work. I now own my own copy of this excellant book which clearly details what Britain was like, its paleogeography and its rock strata in each of the geological time periods. My only fault is that a glossery would be great but otherwise this book is worthy of the full five stars.

A great well-produced introduction, 07 Jan 2003
I bought this book because I was wanted a light introduction to the geology of the UK – nothing too technical, preferably with illustrations to make the points, and hopefully with a sense of narrative to bring 2,000 million years of geological history to life.

This book delivered. I'm not a geologist, so I can't say whether Peter Toghill incorporated the latest evidence or did justice to the complexities of geological debate that I'm sure exist, but he certainly provided the level of answers that I was looking for.

This is a work that inspired me to read more. What better praise for a self-professed introductiory work!

Great book : very clear explanations and figures., 02 Aug 2001
When I was at school the little geology I learned was awfully boring: just the accumulation of layers and layers of stuff over millions of years. But this book has now turned me into a geology fanatic. It explains in historical sequence how the geological formations of Britain have come about. Even with little prior knowledge it is very easy to read (I thought), and I am particularly fond of all the many very well designed colour figures that are a terrific aid in understanding the variouses processes. Whole-heartedly recommended to anyone who's ever wondered why the rocks around the corner from his place look the way they look!

Great historical guide to regional geology, 06 Mar 2000
This book provides a fairly in-depth historical account of the processes and events which shaped the various lumps of rock we call Britain over geological time.

Each chapter deals with a particular period, and describes what was going on in each region. This means the emphasis is on describing the characteristics of each period rather than on the particular history of one region.

As a geology student (OU s260 this year, hello everyone), I've found this book really useful for getting a handle on the different periods - it does a good job of emphasising and contrasting each period's particular features. I feel I have some understanding of what differentiates the Devonian from the Silurian. I even know how long ago they were!

So why not five stars?

Firstly, the book makes little attempt to explain some of the terms it uses as it goes along. For a beginner, that can make it a bit of a slog at first. Having said that, you soon become used to the language and the second time you read it will be a lot more fun than the first.

Secondly, I'd have liked an additional chapter which gave a summary of the complete geological history of each of the regions. It would be nice to have been able to read in three or four paragraphs an overview of how Scotland happened. I think this would have been quite easy to do, and would have provided some useful broad context for the rest of the book.

Having said all this, the book is very useful, very informative, and packed full of exactly the sort of stuff you're interested in if you're reading a review of a book about Geology anyway!

Does the job, 20 Mar 2008
great dictionary, for a-level geology! great links, appendicies and of course definitions.

Just misses out on a mineral ID table.

still billiant though!

The Earth: An Intimate History is prize-winning science writer Richard Fortey's latest book and an ambitious attempt to tell the geological story of planet Earth for the general reader. Several centuries and the combined efforts of thousands of professional geologists have been required to make any real sense of the Earth's structure and its 4.5 billion-year history. That Fortey manages to turn the most important aspects of all this into an enjoyable narrative for the general reader is a considerable achievement.

The book is a sort of guided tour around a number of geological sites with which Fortey is personally familiar, such as the Grand Canyon, the European Alps and Vesuvius (the description of the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii in AD 79 by Pliny the Younger is probably the first clear and objective description of a geological phenomenon.) He then uses their particular geological details to build a more general story of the geology of earth as it is generally understood today.

As a professional geologist at London's Natural History Museum, Fortey is well-qualified to tell this story. His writing skills have been widely acclaimed in earlier books such as Life: An Unauthorised Biography and Trilobite Eyewitness to Evolution. By giving the story a historical slant we can more readily understand how the present understanding of the earth story has been built up over the centuries and it introduces real people into the narrative. Consequently, the more technical aspects of present day earth science are rendered more palatable and understandable. The text is supported by a number of black and white diagrams and other pictures, which help illustrate some of the more complex processes and features of the earth. --Douglas Palmer.

Earth in all its majesty, 27 Mar 2008
Beautiful book and, like the TV series, is a well presented and informative guide to our planet, its formation and also addresses the problems that may occur from the legacy of human impact.

Husband loved it, 04 Mar 2008
My husband was glued to the tv series so i decided to get the book for Xmas for him,thought it wouldn't contain much extra info but he thinks its best book hes ever read and it certainly made him stop and think about the planet and what a fragile place we really live on!
On his 2nd read of it now!!

Wow!!!!, 05 Jan 2008
If you loved the series shown on bbc2 a few weeks ago, I guarantee you'll love this book. I've just received my copy today and I've only read a few pages but wow the stuff and information in it fabulous and awesome images. If you're into your volcanoes, impacts, earthquakes etc. Like I am :) I'd definitely forward this book to you.

Mind boggling!, 09 Dec 2007
This book ties in to the excellent TV series Earth Power of the Planet with the Scottish presenter Ian Stewart. It covers a mind boggling 5 BILLION years of the earth's history and looks at how the planet functions and the threat of global warming. I'm pleased to say the book has all the pace and energy of the series - Stewart has a good knack of making the science understandable. A great introduction to a truly fascinating subject. Amazing pictures too.

excellent book a must for a physical geography degree, 27 Sep 2008
I lost count how many times that I consulted a this book whilst doing a module called Landscape Development in my second year at Staffs Uni. Summerfield is one of the leaders in global geomorphology and my lecturer used to cream in her pants when ever you used either this book or one of his articles in my reference list at the end of an essay or report. If you study physical geography you need this.

Useful Reader, 04 Aug 2005
This book is a very useful and helpful introduction book for Physical Geography with regards to Geomorph - well written and very informative without being over the top in excessive details. Clear & comprehensible.

Geomorpholgy!, 31 Aug 2003
A must for undergraduate physical geography students. A comprehensive text that explains most of the processes and landforms studied at undergraduate level. But not to be used as a stand alone text, you will still have to trawl through journals for the in depth research.

Must have for Physical Geography Degrees, 28 Feb 2000
If you are doing or thinking of doing a Physical geography degree, this book is a must have. It goes into sufficient depth, while it is still fairly easy to understand. I guarrantee it will be on your reading lists.

The Grandest Quadrille, 31 Mar 2008
"Did the Earth move for you?", asks the voice beside you. Well, yes. Because that's what it does. All the time. The continent you live on used to be someplace else, and far away from where it is now. Your home ground has even been part of a greater landmass known as a "supercontinent" - and will be again. Hence, the title of this book. Ted Nield provides us with a fine account of how we came to learn about these movements. He has brought together the years of research tracking where the rocks have been and where they are likely to go. He likens the movement of continents to a dance of landforms - a "Grand Quadrille". A fine synopsis of the history of geology and its compelling figures - scholars who had to project what was known in their time back into a distant past.

Earth has been a busy place for the past four billion years, and it hasn't stopped to rest. We speak of the "firmness of the Earth", but that phrase is a sham. The key figure in this story is the great supercontinent of Pangaea that began breaking up 250 million years ago. Assembled from previous continents that had once joined and also separated, Pangaea's breakup into places we live on today have been traced in exquisite detail. The matching of rocks in places separated by wide seas provided the clues. In fact, as Nield relates, it was the vast Atlantic that bears the responsibility for Pangaea's fracturing to form the basis for the continents we know today. The author explains how the continents have been engaging in a Grand Quadrille and will continue to do so - for another five billion years, at least.

The progenitor of the idea of "drifting continents" was Alfred Wegener. Using maps to show how western Eurasia and Africa matched the east coasts of the Western Hemisphere, Wegener proposed they had once been joined, but had pulled apart. He couldn't provide a mechanism for the movement, and his idea was rejected - most notably by the geologic "establishment" of the United States. Rejection of the proposal was so strong there that one British geologist described it as "regarding the Declaration of Independence as retroactive to the Palaeozoic". Continents formed separately and remained so through time, it was thought.

However, one US dissident, Reginald Daly of Harvard, had been in South Africa, encountering the work of Alexander du Toit, who noted similarities in rocks of the Great Karoo and South America. That discovery, enhanced by some detailed measurements in Greenland, suggested that movement was occurring. It took a war and the hunt for submarines to reveal what prompted continental movement. An Irish geophysicist, John Joly had already postulated the mechanism, heat from radioactive elements deep in the Earth required escape. That venting pushed the softer areas in the Earth's crust around. Sitting atop that stirring material, the continents track the flow patterns of the heat.

In moving, the continents encounter each other, joining, fusing and establishing mighty landmasses that break up again. Nield skilfully describes the mechanisms and the people who have read the rocks to understand how they work. Beyond Pangaea, for example, the author cites the work of Mark McMenamin, who proposes a yet older supercontinent, Rodinia. Rodinia's importance in the history of the Earth is that it was probably the extant landform around which complex life, after over 3 billion years, finally emerged. Nield's skill in presenting all these complex ideas and their significance never wanes throughout the book. He's achieved a fine summary of the history of modern geology, supported by a collection of portraits and some line drawings. The emphasis on Pangaea is slightly overdone, but his pointer to Chris Scotese's web page of geologic ages more than overcomes that small limitation. An excellent overview. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A good book which could become a great one, 09 Sep 2004
The book is excellently presented, with plenty of diagrams and photographs to clarify points made in the text. It is well written but, considering it is produced with the lay person in mind it is easy to become lost in the blizzard of facts, figures and events which are presented on many pages.

The one-page diagram of the Geological time scale is great. The book would be so much easier to digest if other such information was displayed on one page (even as an appendix) for the movement of continents around the planet. Similarly for a table of the various events and the dates they occurred in Britain. Trying to keep track of it all from the text is bemusing.

The glossary, too, could be significantly expanded; as it is it's woefully inadequate and seems arbitrary. For example, dolerite is included, but not dolomite. It is far from clear why. Bearing in mind this book is primarily for lay persons it's almost impossible to remember where you last saw the term, say, ophiolite, when you see it again in the text, so you can check its meaning. A more complete glossary would eradicate this problem.

This is a great book. With additions to make it easier to cross-reference terms and events it could be a 'classic' for lay people with an interest in geology

The Geology of Britain, 17 Mar 2003
I borrowed this book from the school library for months finding it an invaluable resource in my A2 level work. I now own my own copy of this excellant book which clearly details what Britain was like, its paleogeography and its rock strata in each of the geological time periods. My only fault is that a glossery would be great but otherwise this book is worthy of the full five stars.

A great well-produced introduction, 07 Jan 2003
I bought this book because I was wanted a light introduction to the geology of the UK – nothing too technical, preferably with illustrations to make the points, and hopefully with a sense of narrative to bring 2,000 million years of geological history to life.

This book delivered. I'm not a geologist, so I can't say whether Peter Toghill incorporated the latest evidence or did justice to the complexities of geological debate that I'm sure exist, but he certainly provided the level of answers that I was looking for.

This is a work that inspired me to read more. What better praise for a self-professed introductiory work!

Great book : very clear explanations and figures., 02 Aug 2001
When I was at school the little geology I learned was awfully boring: just the accumulation of layers and layers of stuff over millions of years. But this book has now turned me into a geology fanatic. It explains in historical sequence how the geological formations of Britain have come about. Even with little prior knowledge it is very easy to read (I thought), and I am particularly fond of all the many very well designed colour figures that are a terrific aid in understanding the variouses processes. Whole-heartedly recommended to anyone who's ever wondered why the rocks around the corner from his place look the way they look!

Great historical guide to regional geology, 06 Mar 2000
This book provides a fairly in-depth historical account of the processes and events which shaped the various lumps of rock we call Britain over geological time.

Each chapter deals with a particular period, and describes what was going on in each region. This means the emphasis is on describing the characteristics of each period rather than on the particular history of one region.

As a geology student (OU s260 this year, hello everyone), I've found this book really useful for getting a handle on the different periods - it does a good job of emphasising and contrasting each period's particular features. I feel I have some understanding of what differentiates the Devonian from the Silurian. I even know how long ago they were!

So why not five stars?

Firstly, the book makes little attempt to explain some of the terms it uses as it goes along. For a beginner, that can make it a bit of a slog at first. Having said that, you soon become used to the language and the second time you read it will be a lot more fun than the first.

Secondly, I'd have liked an additional chapter which gave a summary of the complete geological history of each of the regions. It would be nice to have been able to read in three or four paragraphs an overview of how Scotland happened. I think this would have been quite easy to do, and would have provided some useful broad context for the rest of the book.

Having said all this, the book is very useful, very informative, and packed full of exactly the sort of stuff you're interested in if you're reading a review of a book about Geology anyway!

Does the job, 20 Mar 2008
great dictionary, for a-level geology! great links, appendicies and of course definitions.

Just misses out on a mineral ID table.

still billiant though!

This book's a bore if you prefer science, 09 Aug 2008
Looking forward to reading a well received book on a fantastic subject matter, I was left struugling to find the will to live after page after page of tedious digression into irrelevant nonsense. Richard Fortey is clearly well read, well travelled and cultured but his digressions are only vaguely relevant. I can only think he might be a bit insecure and wants to bragg about how much he knows about stuff. Buy this if you are the guy who ends up listening to the monotonous nerd at parties, otherwise walk away. It is hard work.

A lost opportunity......., but great for insomnia, 30 Mar 2008
There is no doubt that Richard Fortey is an expert in his field, with a genuine wish to convey his enthusiasm for geology to a wider audience. There is one major obstacle: his writing style is prolix and turgid (sorry, Fortey has got to me: I mean long-winded and boring). I gave up at page 61 after a discussion of the structure of basalt. I can only imagine that the HarperCollins editors were completely anaesthetised by the preceding pages to let this through. Any decent PhD supervisor would have put a blue pencil through this section and written "re-write!!" in the margin. Unnecessary and unexplained phrases abound. For example, on page 58 "Tiltometers .... monitor the heave on the ground .... to an accuracy of a tenth of a microradian. That is a very small tilt indeed." Radians are not defined by Fortey, but this is easily translated: 360º = 2pi radians, so 0.1 microradians is 5.7 microdegrees. But this doesn't mean anything either in practical terms, so why not just say "Tiltometers ... monitor the minutest heaves on the ground." One can't help feeling that Fortey sees himself in the role of High Priest explaining arcane mysteries. To my mind, that is out of touch with the times.

Worth the effort, 16 Sep 2006
The compass of this book staggered my imagination. Not a breezy book and certainly not one to course through in a sitting. The places he chooses for geological description are diverse and representative of the complex processes shaping the surface of the earth. The material is not superficial, not at all "dumbed down." Ponderous? Restructing one's view of the cosmos ... if just only the idea of earth time ... perhaps not easily digestible. The author's comprehensive synthesis (and I did not say 'simplification')in his descriptions and historical overview of the growth of knowledge and some understanding of the various macro geological processes is enviable and refreshing at least. His language, I found, lubricates the reading process for a non-specialist like me.

Does the Earth move for you?, 31 Mar 2006
In answer to a time-related statement from another, such as "I turn 57 next month", have you ever answered, "Rocks don't live that long"? In EARTH, British paleontologist-author Richard Fortey reminds the reader that the globe is theorized to be 4.5 billion years young, and the oldest rock datable by current technology, a zircon crystal from Australia, registers at 4.4 billion years. Is your mother-in-law that old?

I've always been fascinated, when flying over or driving through the deserts of the western U.S., by the myriad of different rock formations unclothed by vegetation and naked for all to see. I've wished that I had a geologist by my side to explain how they came to be. Fortey may be the next best thing. In EARTH, the theme is "plate tectonics", and it's a tribute to the author's writing talent that he can make so esoteric a subject supremely interesting. The book is, at times, hard to put down.

To illustrate the observable effects of past movements of the Earth's crust - movement that will continue long past the habitation of the Earth by the human species, Fortey has selected several spots on our world as exhibits: Pompei, Hawaii, the Swiss Alps, Newfoundland, Scotland, India, Kenya, California, and the Grand Canyon. The narrative is, of course, about the evolution of tectonic plate theory, but also about proto-continents, lost oceans, volcanoes, mountain ranges, upthrusts, downthrusts, subduction zones, deep ocean trenches, mid-ocean ranges, lava, basalt, granite, gneisses, fossils, fault lines, schists, nappes, magnetic fields, limestone, ice sheets, diamonds, gold, coral reefs, green sand, "hot spots", tin mines, magma, marble, polar wandering, rubies, tors, and a mule named "Buttercup". Fortey's gift is to make the mix wonderfully engaging for the average reader, though strict adherents to Creationism will likely see their beliefs threatened. Did you know, for example, that the Appalachians were once one end of a mountain chain that stretched across an ancient continent, and the remains of which, after continental drift, are now in such widely separated locales as Newfoundland, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and the length of western Scandinavia? Or that mid-European miners have long recognized the panicked streaming of cockroaches, which are extremely sensitive to changes in rock pressure, as the harbinger of impending rockfalls?

The author occasionally waxes philosophic. After noting that a 1.5 billion-year old granite slab serves as the counter of a bar in London's Paddington Station, he muses:

"If you have just missed your train, you can at least lean on a bar that is 1500 million years old and reflect that perhaps half an hour is not that serious a delay."

I did, however, spot one egregious error in the narrative that is otherwise erudite and above reproach. On page 278, while recalling a trip through Nevada, he writes:

"Carson City used to be the state capital. Now it is an endearingly ramshackle collection of wooden houses scattered over the hillside."

Now, 'ang on a minute, guv. Carson City has been - and remains - the Nevada state capital. Moreover, it's situated in a broad valley at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, not spread over hills. Perhaps Fortey was thinking of Virginia City, made famous in the TV series "Bonanza", which is located a few miles away, is ramshackle, and is spread over hillsides. But Virginia City was never the state capital.

Perhaps the most endearing chapter is the one in which Richard describes his ride on the back of a mule from the Grand Canyon's South Rim all the way to the bottom while, of course, gawking at the various strata of rock on the way down. Buttercup comes across as the stolid hero of the adventure.

The EARTH paperback includes four sections of color photographs, plus other B&W snaps, maps, and drawings scattered throughout the text. It's a very user-friendly volume like Fortey's other book that I've read, LIFE. This book is an eminently readable work of popular science that should be required reading in high school geology. And I now have a deeper appreciation for the waivey-grained, black, white and grey boulders of granite - up to three tons in weight - that line our koi pond.

Excellent - well written, authoritative, 23 Jun 2005
The is an excellent book which tells the geology of the earth using a number of specific examples from around the world. The narrative is wonderful - more of a story than a textbook.

Earth in all its majesty, 27 Mar 2008
Beautiful book and, like the TV series, is a well presented and informative guide to our planet, its formation and also addresses the problems that may occur from the legacy of human impact.

Husband loved it, 04 Mar 2008
My husband was glued to the tv series so i decided to get the book for Xmas for him,thought it wouldn't contain much extra info but he thinks its best book hes ever read and it certainly made him stop and think about the planet and what a fragile place we really live on!
On his 2nd read of it now!!

Wow!!!!, 05 Jan 2008
If you loved the series shown on bbc2 a few weeks ago, I guarantee you'll love this book. I've just received my copy today and I've only read a few pages but wow the stuff and information in it fabulous and awesome images. If you're into your volcanoes, impacts, earthquakes etc. Like I am :) I'd definitely forward this book to you.

Mind boggling!, 09 Dec 2007
This book ties in to the excellent TV series Earth Power of the Planet with the Scottish presenter Ian Stewart. It covers a mind boggling 5 BILLION years of the earth's history and looks at how the planet functions and the threat of global warming. I'm pleased to say the book has all the pace and energy of the series - Stewart has a good knack of making the science understandable. A great introduction to a truly fascinating subject. Amazing pictures too.

excellent book a must for a physical geography degree, 27 Sep 2008
I lost count how many times that I consulted a this book whilst doing a module called Landscape Development in my second year at Staffs Uni. Summerfield is one of the leaders in global geomorphology and my lecturer used to cream in her pants when ever you used either this book or one of his articles in my reference list at the end of an essay or report. If you study physical geography you need this.

Useful Reader, 04 Aug 2005
This book is a very useful and helpful introduction book for Physical Geography with regards to Geomorph - well written and very informative without being over the top in excessive details. Clear & comprehensible.

Geomorpholgy!, 31 Aug 2003
A must for undergraduate physical geography students. A comprehensive text that explains most of the processes and landforms studied at undergraduate level. But not to be used as a stand alone text, you will still have to trawl through journals for the in depth research.

Must have for Physical Geography Degrees, 28 Feb 2000
If you are doing or thinking of doing a Physical geography degree, this book is a must have. It goes into sufficient depth, while it is still fairly easy to understand. I guarrantee it will be on your reading lists.

The Grandest Quadrille, 31 Mar 2008
"Did the Earth move for you?", asks the voice beside you. Well, yes. Because that's what it does. All the time. The continent you live on used to be someplace else, and far away from where it is now. Your home ground has even been part of a greater landmass known as a "supercontinent" - and will be again. Hence, the title of this book. Ted Nield provides us with a fine account of how we came to learn about these movements. He has brought together the years of research tracking where the rocks have been and where they are likely to go. He likens the movement of continents to a dance of landforms - a "Grand Quadrille". A fine synopsis of the history of geology and its compelling figures - scholars who had to project what was known in their time back into a distant past.

Earth has been a busy place for the past four billion years, and it hasn't stopped to rest. We speak of the "firmness of the Earth", but that phrase is a sham. The key figure in this story is the great supercontinent of Pangaea that began breaking up 250 million years ago. Assembled from previous continents that had once joined and also separated, Pangaea's breakup into places we live on today have been traced in exquisite detail. The matching of rocks in places separated by wide seas provided the clues. In fact, as Nield relates, it was the vast Atlantic that bears the responsibility for Pangaea's fracturing to form the basis for the continents we know today. The author explains how the continents have been engaging in a Grand Quadrille and will continue to do so - for another five billion years, at least.

The progenitor of the idea of "drifting continents" was Alfred Wegener. Using maps to show how western Eurasia and Africa matched the east coasts of the Western Hemisphere, Wegener proposed they had once been joined, but had pulled apart. He couldn't provide a mechanism for the movement, and his idea was rejected - most notably by the geologic "establishment" of the United States. Rejection of the proposal was so strong there that one British geologist described it as "regarding the Declaration of Independence as retroactive to the Palaeozoic". Continents formed separately and remained so through time, it was thought.

However, one US dissident, Reginald Daly of Harvard, had been in South Africa, encountering the work of Alexander du Toit, who noted similarities in rocks of the Great Karoo and South America. That discovery, enhanced by some detailed measurements in Greenland, suggested that movement was occurring. It took a war and the hunt for submarines to reveal what prompted continental movement. An Irish geophysicist, John Joly had already postulated the mechanism, heat from radioactive elements deep in the Earth required escape. That venting pushed the softer areas in the Earth's crust around. Sitting atop that stirring material, the continents track the flow patterns of the heat.

In moving, the continents encounter each other, joining, fusing and establishing mighty landmasses that break up again. Nield skilfully describes the mechanisms and the people who have read the rocks to understand how they work. Beyond Pangaea, for example, the author cites the work of Mark McMenamin, who proposes a yet older supercontinent, Rodinia. Rodinia's importance in the history of the Earth is that it was probably the extant landform around which complex life, after over 3 billion years, finally emerged. Nield's skill in presenting all these complex ideas and their significance never wanes throughout the book. He's achieved a fine summary of the history of modern geology, supported by a collection of portraits and some line drawings. The emphasis on Pangaea is slightly overdone, but his pointer to Chris Scotese's web page of geologic ages more than overcomes that small limitation. An excellent overview. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A good book which could become a great one, 09 Sep 2004
The book is excellently presented, with plenty of diagrams and photographs to clarify points made in the text. It is well written but, considering it is produced with the lay person in mind it is easy to become lost in the blizzard of facts, figures and events which are presented on many pages.

The one-page diagram of the Geological time scale is great. The book would be so much easier to digest if other such information was displayed on one page (even as an appendix) for the movement of continents around the planet. Similarly for a table of the various events and the dates they occurred in Britain. Trying to keep track of it all from the text is bemusing.

The glossary, too, could be significantly expanded; as it is it's woefully inadequate and seems arbitrary. For example, dolerite is included, but not dolomite. It is far from clear why. Bearing in mind this book is primarily for lay persons it's almost impossible to remember where you last saw the term, say, ophiolite, when you see it again in the text, so you can check its meaning. A more complete glossary would eradicate this problem.

This is a great book. With additions to make it easier to cross-reference terms and events it could be a 'classic' for lay people with an interest in geology

The Geology of Britain, 17 Mar 2003
I borrowed this book from the school library for months finding it an invaluable resource in my A2 level work. I now own my own copy of this excellant book which clearly details what Britain was like, its paleogeography and its rock strata in each of the geological time periods. My only fault is that a glossery would be great but otherwise this book is worthy of the full five stars.

A great well-produced introduction, 07 Jan 2003
I bought this book because I was wanted a light introduction to the geology of the UK – nothing too technical, preferably with illustrations to make the points, and hopefully with a sense of narrative to bring 2,000 million years of geological history to life.

This book delivered. I'm not a geologist, so I can't say whether Peter Toghill incorporated the latest evidence or did justice to the complexities of geological debate that I'm sure exist, but he certainly provided the level of answers that I was looking for.

This is a work that inspired me to read more. What better praise for a self-professed introductiory work!

Great book : very clear explanations and figures., 02 Aug 2001
When I was at school the little geology I learned was awfully boring: just the accumulation of layers and layers of stuff over millions of years. But this book has now turned me into a geology fanatic. It explains in historical sequence how the geological formations of Britain have come about. Even with little prior knowledge it is very easy to read (I thought), and I am particularly fond of all the many very well designed colour figures that are a terrific aid in understanding the variouses processes. Whole-heartedly recommended to anyone who's ever wondered why the rocks around the corner from his place look the way they look!

Great historical guide to regional geology, 06 Mar 2000
This book provides a fairly in-depth historical account of the processes and events which shaped the various lumps of rock we call Britain over geological time.

Each chapter deals with a particular period, and describes what was going on in each region. This means the emphasis is on describing the characteristics of each period rather than on the particular history of one region.

As a geology student (OU s260 this year, hello everyone), I've found this book really useful for getting a handle on the different periods - it does a good job of emphasising and contrasting each period's particular features. I feel I have some understanding of what differentiates the Devonian from the Silurian. I even know how long ago they were!

So why not five stars?

Firstly, the book makes little attempt to explain some of the terms it uses as it goes along. For a beginner, that can make it a bit of a slog at first. Having said that, you soon become used to the language and the second time you read it will be a lot more fun than the first.

Secondly, I'd have liked an additional chapter which gave a summary of the complete geological history of each of the regions. It would be nice to have been able to read in three or four paragraphs an overview of how Scotland happened. I think this would have been quite easy to do, and would have provided some useful broad context for the rest of the book.

Having said all this, the book is very useful, very informative, and packed full of exactly the sort of stuff you're interested in if you're reading a review of a book about Geology anyway!

Does the job, 20 Mar 2008
great dictionary, for a-level geology! great links, appendicies and of course definitions.

Just misses out on a mineral ID table.

still billiant though!

This book's a bore if you prefer science, 09 Aug 2008
Looking forward to reading a well received book on a fantastic subject matter, I was left struugling to find the will to live after page after page of tedious digression into irrelevant nonsense. Richard Fortey is clearly well read, well travelled and cultured but his digressions are only vaguely relevant. I can only think he might be a bit insecure and wants to bragg about how much he knows about stuff. Buy this if you are the guy who ends up listening to the monotonous nerd at parties, otherwise walk away. It is hard work.

A lost opportunity......., but great for insomnia, 30 Mar 2008
There is no doubt that Richard Fortey is an expert in his field, with a genuine wish to convey his enthusiasm for geology to a wider audience. There is one major obstacle: his writing style is prolix and turgid (sorry, Fortey has got to me: I mean long-winded and boring). I gave up at page 61 after a discussion of the structure of basalt. I can only imagine that the HarperCollins editors were completely anaesthetised by the preceding pages to let this through. Any decent PhD supervisor would have put a blue pencil through this section and written "re-write!!" in the margin. Unnecessary and unexplained phrases abound. For example, on page 58 "Tiltometers .... monitor the heave on the ground .... to an accuracy of a tenth of a microradian. That is a very small tilt indeed." Radians are not defined by Fortey, but this is easily translated: 360º = 2pi radians, so 0.1 microradians is 5.7 microdegrees. But this doesn't mean anything either in practical terms, so why not just say "Tiltometers ... monitor the minutest heaves on the ground." One can't help feeling that Fortey sees himself in the role of High Priest explaining arcane mysteries. To my mind, that is out of touch with the times.

Worth the effort, 16 Sep 2006
The compass of this book staggered my imagination. Not a breezy book and certainly not one to course through in a sitting. The places he chooses for geological description are diverse and representative of the complex processes shaping the surface of the earth. The material is not superficial, not at all "dumbed down." Ponderous? Restructing one's view of the cosmos ... if just only the idea of earth time ... perhaps not easily digestible. The author's comprehensive synthesis (and I did not say 'simplification')in his descriptions and historical overview of the growth of knowledge and some understanding of the various macro geological processes is enviable and refreshing at least. His language, I found, lubricates the reading process for a non-specialist like me.

Does the Earth move for you?, 31 Mar 2006
In answer to a time-related statement from another, such as "I turn 57 next month", have you ever answered, "Rocks don't live that long"? In EARTH, British paleontologist-author Richard Fortey reminds the reader that the globe is theorized to be 4.5 billion years young, and the oldest rock datable by current technology, a zircon crystal from Australia, registers at 4.4 billion years. Is your mother-in-law that old?

I've always been fascinated, when flying over or driving through the deserts of the western U.S., by the myriad of different rock formations unclothed by vegetation and naked for all to see. I've wished that I had a geologist by my side to explain how they came to be. Fortey may be the next best thing. In EARTH, the theme is "plate tectonics", and it's a tribute to the author's writing talent that he can make so esoteric a subject supremely interesting. The book is, at times, hard to put down.

To illustrate the observable effects of past movements of the Earth's crust - movement that will continue long past the habitation of the Earth by the human species, Fortey has selected several spots on our world as exhibits: Pompei, Hawaii, the Swiss Alps, Newfoundland, Scotland, India, Kenya, California, and the Grand Canyon. The narrative is, of course, about the evolution of tectonic plate theory, but also about proto-continents, lost oceans, volcanoes, mountain ranges, upthrusts, downthrusts, subduction zones, deep ocean trenches, mid-ocean ranges, lava, basalt, granite, gneisses, fossils, fault lines, schists, nappes, magnetic fields, limestone, ice sheets, diamonds, gold, coral reefs, green sand, "hot spots", tin mines, magma, marble, polar wandering, rubies, tors, and a mule named "Buttercup". Fortey's gift is to make the mix wonderfully engaging for the average reader, though strict adherents to Creationism will likely see their beliefs threatened. Did you know, for example, that the Appalachians were once one end of a mountain chain that stretched across an ancient continent, and the remains of which, after continental drift, are now in such widely separated locales as Newfoundland, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and the length of western Scandinavia? Or that mid-European miners have long recognized the panicked streaming of cockroaches, which are extremely sensitive to changes in rock pressure, as the harbinger of impending rockfalls?

The author occasionally waxes philosophic. After noting that a 1.5 billion-year old granite slab serves as the counter of a bar in London's Paddington Station, he muses:

"If you have just missed your train, you can at least lean on a bar that is 1500 million years old and reflect that perhaps half an hour is not that serious a delay."

I did, however, spot one egregious error in the narrative that is otherwise erudite and above reproach. On page 278, while recalling a trip through Nevada, he writes:

"Carson City used to be the state capital. Now it is an endearingly ramshackle collection of wooden houses scattered over the hillside."

Now, 'ang on a minute, guv. Carson City has been - and remains - the Nevada state capital. Moreover, it's situated in a broad valley at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, not spread over hills. Perhaps Fortey was thinking of Virginia City, made famous in the TV series "Bonanza", which is located a few miles away, is ramshackle, and is spread over hillsides. But Virginia City was never the state capital.

Perhaps the most endearing chapter is the one in which Richard describes his ride on the back of a mule from the Grand Canyon's South Rim all the way to the bottom while, of course, gawking at the various strata of rock on the way down. Buttercup comes across as the stolid hero of the adventure.

The EARTH paperback includes four sections of color photographs, plus other B&W snaps, maps, and drawings scattered throughout the text. It's a very user-friendly volume like Fortey's other book that I've read, LIFE. This book is an eminently readable work of popular science that should be required reading in high school geology. And I now have a deeper appreciation for the waivey-grained, black, white and grey boulders of granite - up to three tons in weight - that line our koi pond.

Excellent - well written, authoritative, 23 Jun 2005
The is an excellent book which tells the geology of the earth using a number of specific examples from around the world. The narrative is wonderful - more of a story than a textbook.

Easy to understand, 18 Jul 2007
This book is easy to understand for those who want to do a coure in Earth science.

an interesting guide even to read not jus t study., 19 Feb 2000
th book is interetsing ad it is not difficult to study and even to read even i you do not know geography at all.

Earth in all its majesty, 27 Mar 2008
Beautiful book and, like the TV series, is a well presented and informative guide to our planet, its formation and also addresses the problems that may occur from the legacy of human impact.

Husband loved it, 04 Mar 2008
My husband was glued to the tv series so i decided to get the book for Xmas for him,thought it wouldn't contain much extra info but he thinks its best book hes ever read and it certainly made him stop and think about the planet and what a fragile place we really live on!
On his 2nd read of it now!!

Wow!!!!, 05 Jan 2008
If you loved the series shown on bbc2 a few weeks ago, I guarantee you'll love this book. I've just received my copy today and I've only read a few pages but wow the stuff and information in it fabulous and awesome images. If you're into your volcanoes, impacts, earthquakes etc. Like I am :) I'd definitely forward this book to you.

Mind boggling!, 09 Dec 2007
This book ties in to the excellent TV series Earth Power of the Planet with the Scottish presenter Ian Stewart. It covers a mind boggling 5 BILLION years of the earth's history and looks at how the planet functions and the threat of global warming. I'm pleased to say the book has all the pace and energy of the series - Stewart has a good knack of making the science understandable. A great introduction to a truly fascinating subject. Amazing pictures too.

excellent book a must for a physical geography degree, 27 Sep 2008
I lost count how many times that I consulted a this book whilst doing a module called Landscape Development in my second year at Staffs Uni. Summerfield is one of the leaders in global geomorphology and my lecturer used to cream in her pants when ever you used either this book or one of his articles in my reference list at the end of an essay or report. If you study physical geography you need this.

Useful Reader, 04 Aug 2005
This book is a very useful and helpful introduction book for Physical Geography with regards to Geomorph - well written and very informative without being over the top in excessive details. Clear & comprehensible.

Geomorpholgy!, 31 Aug 2003
A must for undergraduate physical geography students. A comprehensive text that explains most of the processes and landforms studied at undergraduate level. But not to be used as a stand alone text, you will still have to trawl through journals for the in depth research.

Must have for Physical Geography Degrees, 28 Feb 2000
If you are doing or thinking of doing a Physical geography degree, this book is a must have. It goes into sufficient depth, while it is still fairly easy to understand. I guarrantee it will be on your reading lists.

The Grandest Quadrille, 31 Mar 2008
"Did the Earth move for you?", asks the voice beside you. Well, yes. Because that's what it does. All the time. The continent you live on used to be someplace else, and far away from where it is now. Your home ground has even been part of a greater landmass known as a "supercontinent" - and will be again. Hence, the title of this book. Ted Nield provides us with a fine account of how we came to learn about these movements. He has brought together the years of research tracking where the rocks have been and where they are likely to go. He likens the movement of continents to a dance of landforms - a "Grand Quadrille". A fine synopsis of the history of geology and its compelling figures - scholars who had to project what was known in their time back into a distant past.

Earth has been a busy place for the past four billion years, and it hasn't stopped to rest. We speak of the "firmness of the Earth", but that phrase is a sham. The key figure in this story is the great supercontinent of Pangaea that began breaking up 250 million years ago. Assembled from previous continents that had once joined and also separated, Pangaea's breakup into places we live on today have been traced in exquisite detail. The matching of rocks in places separated by wide seas provided the clues. In fact, as Nield relates, it was the vast Atlantic that bears the responsibility for Pangaea's fracturing to form the basis for the continents we know today. The author explains how the continents have been engaging in a Grand Quadrille and will continue to do so - for another five billion years, at least.

The progenitor of the idea of "drifting continents" was Alfred Wegener. Using maps to show how western Eurasia and Africa matched the east coasts of the Western Hemisphere, Wegener proposed they had once been joined, but had pulled apart. He couldn't provide a mechanism for the movement, and his idea was rejected - most notably by the geologic "establishment" of the United States. Rejection of the proposal was so strong there that one British geologist described it as "regarding the Declaration of Independence as retroactive to the Palaeozoic". Continents formed separately and remained so through time, it was thought.

However, one US dissident, Reginald Daly of Harvard, had been in South Africa, encountering the work of Alexander du Toit, who noted similarities in rocks of the Great Karoo and South America. That discovery, enhanced by some detailed measurements in Greenland, suggested that movement was occurring. It took a war and the hunt for submarines to reveal what prompted continental movement. An Irish geophysicist, John Joly had already postulated the mechanism, heat from radioactive elements deep in the Earth required escape. That venting pushed the softer areas in the Earth's crust around. Sitting atop that stirring material, the continents track the flow patterns of the heat.

In moving, the continents encounter each other, joining, fusing and establishing mighty landmasses that break up again. Nield skilfully describes the mechanisms and the people who have read the rocks to understand how they work. Beyond Pangaea, for example, the author cites the work of Mark McMenamin, who proposes a yet older supercontinent, Rodinia. Rodinia's importance in the history of the Earth is that it was probably the extant landform around which complex life, after over 3 billion years, finally emerged. Nield's skill in presenting all these complex ideas and their significance never wanes throughout the book. He's achieved a fine summary of the history of modern geology, supported by a collection of portraits and some line drawings. The emphasis on Pangaea is slightly overdone, but his pointer to Chris Scotese's web page of geologic ages more than overcomes that small limitation. An excellent overview. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A good book which could become a great one, 09 Sep 2004
The book is excellently presented, with plenty of diagrams and photographs to clarify points made in the text. It is well written but, considering it is produced with the lay person in mind it is easy to become lost in the blizzard of facts, figures and events which are presented on many pages.

The one-page diagram of the Geological time scale is great. The book would be so much easier to digest if other such information was displayed on one page (even as an appendix) for the movement of continents around the planet. Similarly for a table of the various events and the dates they occurred in Britain. Trying to keep track of it all from the text is bemusing.

The glossary, too, could be significantly expanded; as it is it's woefully inadequate and seems arbitrary. For example, dolerite is included, but not dolomite. It is far from clear why. Bearing in mind this book is primarily for lay persons it's almost impossible to remember where you last saw the term, say, ophiolite, when you see it again in the text, so you can check its meaning. A more complete glossary would eradicate this problem.

This is a great book. With additions to make it easier to cross-reference terms and events it could be a 'classic' for lay people with an interest in geology

The Geology of Britain, 17 Mar 2003
I borrowed this book from the school library for months finding it an invaluable resource in my A2 level work. I now own my own copy of this excellant book which clearly details what Britain was like, its paleogeography and its rock strata in each of the geological time periods. My only fault is that a glossery would be great but otherwise this book is worthy of the full five stars.

A great well-produced introduction, 07 Jan 2003
I bought this book because I was wanted a light introduction to the geology of the UK – nothing too technical, preferably with illustrations to make the points, and hopefully with a sense of narrative to bring 2,000 million years of geological history to life.

This book delivered. I'm not a geologist, so I can't say whether Peter Toghill incorporated the latest evidence or did justice to the complexities of geological debate that I'm sure exist, but he certainly provided the level of answers that I was looking for.

This is a work that inspired me to read more. What better praise for a self-professed introductiory work!

Great book : very clear explanations and figures., 02 Aug 2001
When I was at school the little geology I learned was awfully boring: just the accumulation of layers and layers of stuff over millions of years. But this book has now turned me into a geology fanatic. It explains in historical sequence how the geological formations of Britain have come about. Even with little prior knowledge it is very easy to read (I thought), and I am particularly fond of all the many very well designed colour figures that are a terrific aid in understanding the variouses processes. Whole-heartedly recommended to anyone who's ever wondered why the rocks around the corner from his place look the way they look!

Great historical guide to regional geology, 06 Mar 2000
This book provides a fairly in-depth historical account of the processes and events which shaped the various lumps of rock we call Britain over geological time.

Each chapter deals with a particular period, and describes what was going on in each region. This means the emphasis is on describing the