Walking the Bones of Britain, Christopher Somerville
Walking the Bones of Britain, Christopher Somerville
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Walking the Bones of Britain
A 3 Billion Year Journey from the Outer Hebrides to the Thames Estuary

Author: Christopher Somerville

Narrator: Christopher Somerville

Unabridged: 12 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/24/2023

Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin.

Travelling a thousand miles and across three billion years, Christopher Somerville (walking correspondent of The Times and author of Coast, The January Man and Ships of Heaven) sets out to interrogate the 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.

In his thousand-mile journey, 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 sometimes 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.

©2023 Christopher Somerville (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Reviews

Goodreads review by Margaret on December 29, 2023

What a rich and immersive book this is. As a schoolboy, Somerville was bored by geology. He isn't now. He's fascinated by the ground beneath our feet, and the forces and events that, over the millennia, made it what it is today. For a small island, our geological story is particularly rich. Somervil......more

Goodreads review by Glafira on January 30, 2025

An interesting book on the theme of travel. The author, a geologist by education, journeys from one end of Britain to the other, searching for ancient stones and fossils—and there are plenty of them in the country. I find this book truly unique in its own way, as it focuses on a less popular (but no......more

Goodreads review by Malcolm on September 05, 2024

This is a description of walking the length of Britain looking at the geology of the different parts of the country and how it came about.Geology can be a very boring subject but I didn’t find that in this book especially as it was helped by descriptions of the people he meets and anecdotes from the......more

Goodreads review by Nick on July 25, 2025

Whilst I enjoyed this book, I had a sense throughout that it couldn't quite make up its mind whether it was a conventional travelogue/walking book or something more, and in the end it kind of fell between two stools. Whilst exploring the geology of Britain is an interesting subject, I was left wonde......more

Goodreads review by Artie on November 11, 2024

I'm afraid that, while this is worthy and the content is broadly interesting, it didn't hold my attention. I made it all the way through Scotland, but abandoned it at the English border. I found the geology a bit too detailed for the lay reader.......more

Quotes

[Somerville's] infectious enthusiasm and wry humour infuse his journey from the Isle of Lewis to southern England, revealing our rich geological history with vibrant local and natural history. Observer

For someone who hated geology lessons at school, barely able to stay awake during discussions of laminated rhyolites and tuffaceous breccias, Christopher Somerville has made up for this with aplomb and vivid readability. To have tramped more than 1,000 miles from the sea stacks of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, where in fiery days gone by more than 3,000 million years ago the landscape was literally set in stone, and reach the silty clay of Wallasea Island in Essex is a remarkable achievement. By focusing on the best bits of geological interest along the way such as Arthur's Seat in once volcanic Edinburgh, the sandstone crags of the Pennine Way and the chalky Chilterns, he provides an illuminating new take on the British landscape. Encounters, warm humour, history and plenty of geology (Carboniferous periods, Permian periods, Zechstein Seas, no less) carry you down the winding tracks.

Rambling alongside the tirelessly energetic Christopher Somerville from the comfort of my armchair is a joy.
In Walking the Bones Someville is the perfect travelling companion. Knowledgeable and observant, he picks up the stories of the paths he walks along in much the same way as he illuminates the stones which are under his feet, holding them up for us to see, and then returning them to the path, for the next curious traveller to find. A meticulous exploration of the ground beneath our feet. Glorious."

An ideal gift for any walking enthusiast who wants to know more. Geoscientist magazine

Walking the Bones of Britain demystifies our daunting geology on a nine-month journey laced with humour and history. The Great Outdoors

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