This was first published in 2001 but I’ve included it here as it is one of the very best books that followed the Longitude method of science writing, homing in on one small step in history, showing how one man’s obsessive quest created the world’s first Geological map in 1815. The man was William Smith, the son of an Oxfordshire blacksmith, and in a story of many twists and seesawing fortunes, Simon Winchester shows how against all odds he surveyed England and created his map, one of the wonders of the age. If you didn’t think you were interested in geology, I guarantee you’ll be fascinated by the whole subject after reading The Map that Changed the World.
Comparison: The Floating Egg: Episodes in the Making of Geology by Roger Osborne
| Primary Genre | Popular Science |
| Recommendations: |
Following the hugely successful hardback, this extraordinary tale of the father of modern geology looks set to be the non fiction paperback for 2002. Hidden behind velvet curtains above a stairway in a house in London's Piccadilly is an enormous and beautiful hand-coloured map - the first geological map of anywhere in the world. Its maker was a farmer's son named William Smith.
Born in 1769 his life was beset by troubles: he was imprisoned for debt, turned out of his home, his work was plagiarised, his wife went insane and the scientific establishment shunned him. It was not until 1829, when a Yorkshire aristocrat recognised his genius that he was returned to London in triumph. The Map That Changed the World is his story.
The Map That Changed the World: A Tale of Rocks, Ruin and Redemption features in the following genres: Popular Science, eBooks of the Month, Science: general issues, Mathematics and Science, Recommendations
The Map That Changed the World: A Tale of Rocks, Ruin and Redemption is available in Paperback
The Map That Changed the World: A Tale of Rocks, Ruin and Redemption was written by Simon Winchester and published by Penguin Books Ltd
The Map That Changed the World: A Tale of Rocks, Ruin and Redemption has 338 pages
£11.69
