Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth Paperback – 7 September 1999

Drab writing

Rarey keeps one spellbound through 4 and 1/2 billion years. His facts are immediately discernible and buttressed by his command of the english language. Next up I'll finish reading "Trilobites" and then return to "Trees"

A marvellous, witty cornucopia on life and how it arose on this obscure little planet, interspersed with interesting observations on science and scientists as they puzzle over the clues in the rocks to try to figure out how we all got here. Plus a number of odd digressions in other directions, which I know bothered some other reviewers, but which I found rather entertaining. There's a lot we know and a lot we don't know and probably a lot that we'll never really know, but it doesn't stop us asking, because that is our nature. Dr. Fortey's zest for the subject, as well as his good humour and eagerness to communicate the facts of life (so to speak) to us, are fully on show. Anyone who wants to know how we got here could do a lot worse than consult this great little book.

After reading a growing list of books on biology, geology, evolution and ecology if somebody asked me to recomend to good books to get an understanding and overview on the history of life on earth and geology I would recomend him `Life' and `Earth' both writen by Richard Fortey. Fortey is a very talented writer, he uses a similar approach as did Stephen Gould by presenting a complex topic in an accesible way starting with a very concrete example. Both books are easy and fun to read but when finished the reader realizes he managed to grasp quite a few important points. Both books were a good start to continue further reading on more specific topics within the areas of earth sciences, history of life and geology. I do strongly recomend this book

Ok, bit of a foible of mine but i normally get wound up when authors start telling their life story in a history book but here its well judged, funny and adds to the sense of joy about his subject. Without delving too much into the minutiae of 4 billion years of life it gives you a wide ranging overview of the subject in a fantastically readable way- no long disscussions over Bivalve morphology that gave me nightmares at university!Its not a textbook, its a beautifully crafted novella with Mr Fortey as the narrator and a cast of heroes and villains (and missunderstood villains like the oviraptor) - my second favourite book of the year (and theres been a lot this year)

I was hoping for a little less personal anecdote and a little more framing. I have done some reading about the past, but am mostly a lay reader - without my prior reading I think I would have been lost. I liked his sense of the progression of life and the key innovations, as well as his imaginings of what the earth and life were like at various points. But I'd have preferred that information to be bolstered with more diagrams and context - rather than with poetic allusions. He's old school British I suppose, and there's no helping that. The humor was welcome, but the lyrical passages were more than I needed. He enjoyed writing this book more than he should have :)