Walking the Bones of Britain with Christopher Somerville

Christopher Somerville is the walking correspondent for The Times and one of Britain’s most respected and prolific travel writers. He will talk about his latest book, Walking the Bones of Britain. Traveling a thousand miles and across three billion years, Christopher Somerville sets out to interrogate the hidden land beneath our feet, and how it has affected every aspect of human history from farming to house construction, the Industrial Revolution to the current climate crisis. Somerville follows the story of Britain’s unique geology, travelling from the three-billion-year-old rocks of the Isle of Lewis, formed when the world was still molten, down the map south eastwards across bogs, over peaks and past quarry pits to the furthest corner of Essex where new land is being formed by nature and man. Demystifying the daunting technicalities of geology with humour and a characteristic lightness of touch, Somerville’s book tells a story of humanity’s reckless exploitation and a lemming-like surge towards self-annihilation but also shows seeds of hope as we learn how we might work with geology to avert a climate catastrophe. It cannot fail to change the way you see the world beyond your door.