There I was, minding my own business, when the postman knocked twice. It was a parcel! I love parcels and so raced upstairs to Mission Control to rip it open.
What a splendid chap! My ‘brother with the hair’ had managed to purloin a book from a work colleague, just on the off-chance that I might enjoy it. In the accompanying card he did say he thought it might be a “load of old pants” as the lad he pinched it from had said it was quite heavy going… But never one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, I braced myself, and dug into the book as a night-time reader.
Within the first few pages, I was hooked. This isn’t a skim-reader. It demands and deserves attention. Not a single word is wasted! Skip a bit and you are lost. Go back and re-read it if it hasn’t sunk in.
With climate change on everyone’s thoughts these days, Emma Wood has set out to write how climate change and geology shaped Scotland’s history. Most Scots, and a few English, know about the political history of Scotland, but few, I would venture, understand how massively important Scotland's geology and climate change has been in the country’s turbulent past.
The book covers Scotland from the start of geology itself, when the rocks were laid down 3 billion years ago, through the various ice ages, up to the present day. It talks of the land’s first settlers, and how the huge swings in climate affected their lives and how humans adjusted and coped with these events. It travels through time examining how these swings in the climate affected agriculture and settlement patterns.
In brief, it gives you a comprehensive account as to why things are as they are right now. Armed with this information, you will see that the modern phenomenon of climate change is just the latest in a long line of events that the Scots have had to adapt to. With all the outrageous nonsense talked nowadays about climate change, this book shines like a beacon of reason.
A ‘MUST READ’ book!
Peatbogs, Plague & Potatoes: Emma Wood, Luath Press.
