'For the first time, fish became our companions and a corner of many a Victorian parlour was given over to housing tiny fragments of their world enclosed in glass.'The experience of seeing a fish swimming in a glass tank is one we take for granted now but in Victorian England this was a remarkable sight. People had simply not been able to see fish as they could with the invention of the aquarium and everything that went with it.Goldfish in the Parlour looks at the ...

Obaysch: A Hippopotamus in Victorian London is the story of Obaysch the hippopotamus, the first 'star' animal to be exhibited in the London Zoo.In 1850, a baby hippopotamus arrived on English shores, allegedly the first in Europe since the Roman Empire, and almost certainly the first in Europe since prehistoric times. Captured near an island from which he took his name, Obaysch was donated by the viceroy of Egypt in exchange for greyhounds and deerhounds. His arrival was g...

This celebration of the English countryside does not only focus on the rolling green landscapes and magnificent monuments that set England apart from the rest of the world. Many of the contributors bring their own special touch, presenting a refreshingly eclectic variety of personal icons, from pub signs to seaside piers, from cattle grids to canal boats, and from village cricket to nimbies.First published as a lavish colour coffeetable book, this new expanded paperback edition has...

From the author of the bestselling The Professor and the Madman comes the fascinating biography of science detailing the story of William Smith, the orphaned son of an English country blacksmith, who became obsessed with creating the world's first geological map and ultimately became the father of modern geology.In 1793 William Smith, a canal digger, made a startling scientific discovery that was to turn the fledgling science of the history of the earth — ...

This edition does not include illustrations.‘Dry Store Room No. 1’ is an intimate biography of the Natural History Museum, celebrating the eccentric personalities who have peopled it and capturing the wonders of scientific endeavour, academic rigour and imagination.Behind the public façade of any great museum there lies a secret domain: one of unseen galleries, locked doors, priceless specimens and hidden lives.Through the stories of the numerous eccentric individuals whose...

'A very well written book about geology and geological history' Sir David Attenborough, The Times'I travelled to Haverfordwest to get to the past. From Paddington Station a Great Western locomotive took me on a journey westwards from London further and further back into geological time, from the age of mammals to the age of trilobites...'So begins this enthralling exploration of time and place in which Richard Fortey peels away the top lay...

RHS Staff Pick of the Year 2021Spectator Gardening Book of the year 2021'A refreshingly insightful history of plant introductions.' - Roy LancasterTravel the world with extraordinary tales of the botanical discoveries that have shaped empires, built (and destroyed) economies, revolutionised medicine and advanced our understanding of science.Circling the globe from Australia's ...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2019'Have you met Mrs Edith Coleman? If not you must - I am sure you will like her - she's just A1 and a splendid naturalist.'In 1922, a 48-year-old housewife from Blackburn delivered her first paper, on native Australian orchids, to the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. Over the next thirty years, Edith Coleman would write over 300 articles on Australian nature for newspapers, magazines and scientific...

Spinster Mary Anning, uneducated and poor, was of the wrong sex, wrong class and wrong religion, but fate decreed that she was exactly the right person in the right place and time to pioneer the emerging science of palaeontology, the study of fossils.Born in Lyme Regis in 1799, Mary learned to collect fossils with her cabinet-maker father. The unstable cliffs and stealthy sea made the task dangerous but after her father died the sale of fossils sustained her family...

Lichens are fascinating and beautiful organisms able to colonise a vast range of habitats, including seemingly impossible places such as bare icy mountain tops and sun-scorched coastal rocks. This book discusses all aspects of British lichens, revealing the secrets of their success. This edition is exclusive to newnaturalists.comLichens are fascinating and beautiful organisms able to colonise a vast range of habitats, including seemingly impossible places such as bare icy mountain ...

In Boom and Bust, the authors draw on the natural history of Australia's charismatic birds to explore the relations between fauna, people and environment in a continent where variability is 'normal' and rainfall patterns not always seasonal. They consider changing ideas about deserts and how these have helped us understand birds and their behaviour in this driest of continents. The book describes the responses of animals and plants to environmental variability and stress. It is also a cultura...

River Dreams reveals the complex history of the Cooks River in south-eastern Sydney—a river renowned as Australia's most altered and polluted. While nineteenth century developers called it "improvement," the sugar mill, tanneries, and factories that lined the banks of Sydney's Cooks River had drastic consequences for the health of the river. While much of the river has been rehabilitated in recent decades by passionate local groups and through government initiatives, it continues ...