Lie of the Land: An under-the-field guide to the British Isles

An enjoyable romp through the Eons, looking at the geology of the British Isles, aimed at novices to geology. Along the way, we also take detours to things on a less geological timescale, including the development of the steam locomotive, Stonehenge, Victorian popularity of Devil's Dyke and even Goonhilly and tracking the Apollo missions.I enjoy Vince's strange humour, for example this footnote here from Chapter 5:"1. Although Caledonian Orogeny does sound like at least one potential outcome of watching a Scottish porn film, an orogeny is actually a period of mountain building caused by a collision of two continents."There are also moments of travelogue and memoir in this book, and we get to find out something about Vince himself, for example:"I used to walk up the landslip as a teenager, in a place called, locally at least, The Elephant's Graveyard, a couple of miles to the East of Seaton. My friend and I used to collect golf balls hopelessly sliced off the tee by members of the Axe Cliff Golf Club and sell them to anyone who wanted to take advantage of these fruits of the higher handicaps. I notice now that the course is somewhat smaller than I remember, so maybe that's one of the positive pay-offs of coastal erosion - the exposure of fossils and the slow but eventual elimination of golf. Win-win."This book is crying out for a coffee-table version, with lots of nice photographs and colour maps. I do hope the publishers (Pan Macmillan) think to do that.This is a great book, and certainly one that bears reading more than once.

First the positives - I did like the overall chapter set up and more generally found the prose when concentrating on the actual geology (rather than somewhat random rants against everything from golf to digital cameras) engaging and informative. The diagrams were also of a good standard and enhanced my understanding of the text. On the downside I found the aforementioned rants somewhat forced and therefore incongruous as well as some inexcusable factual errors. The most egregious being the statement (used to analogise the geological timescale along the length of Britain) that Loughborough is "a dozen or so miles north" of Nottingham when actually it is a similar distance south of that city. The statement twice-made that Snowdon was the second highest mountain in Wales also rankled - does the author know something I don't, whereby it seems mightily affected that the highest mountain isn't then name-checked or is this another error?In summary I would recommend this book as a good introduction to the geology of Britain, it's just a shame that the author's style somewhat detracted from the obvious knowledge of both the subject matter and the good incidental information as he is not unfortunately Bryson, no matter how hard he may try.

I had been intending to buy a copy of The Lie of the Land for ages. I am a founder member of the British Landscape Club - no, really! I have a badge and everything - and had been aware of the book for a couple of years. Finally, I clicked Buy, and I'm happy to say I read the entire book cover to cover virtually the day it arrived.Ian Vince's subtle humour, redolent of the late Douglas Adams at times, shines throughout the book. Although I already have a half-decent understanding of the geological history of our planet and the UK, I found the descriptions and anecdotes helped to fill gaps in my knowledge nicely. Pitched at just the right level for a novice like me, I still learned new facts to astound my friends!Each chapter covers a geological age, and once some preliminaries are out of the way - simple stuff like how the Solar System formed and so on - we move back through time as the book progresses. I'd have liked to have seen some photographs to aid the text at times, but these can be found on the associated web site.To round up an all-too-brief review, I intend to use The Lie of the Land as a guidebook for my retirement Grand Tour around the British Isles. It's a thoroughly recommended book to anyone with even a passing interest in the history of our fair isle.

This is a non-technical guide to the geology of Britain: how it was formed, how it shapes the landscape and (to a lesser extent) how it affects recent human history. It's an interesting topic, and Vince writes with warmth and enthusiasm. However, I feel that his publisher has let him down. First, this book cries out for some photographs. Yes there's a website, but I don't want to scurry off to my computer every five minutes. Second, while some passages and chapters are very well written (the one on the Silurian rocks of Shropshire springs to mind), other parts are confused, repetitive and, well, a bit dull. The potential is there, but it needed better copy-editing to tease it out. Finally, the book makes excessive use of footnotes. This may seem like a minor point, but they are distracting and spoil the narrative flow. Annoyingly, most are totally redundant - some contain irrelevant information, others are explained in the main body anyway, and several are repeated almost verbatim in different parts of the book. I read the hardback edition; if these problems have been addressed in the paperback edition, this is a four- or five-star book.

An entertaining and very readable first hand account of British geology suitable for everyone not just the academics. Pitched just right: not too long or too short, not too basic or too complicated. Should be read by anyone studying geology and/or geography at G.C.S.E level or by those going to University to study Earth Sciences.

Still to read – but it clearly covers the subject matter in the title which is what I was after

This is an excellent little book, with good value for money. This is the type of product to buy from Amazon.

I have bought this for our grandson's chosen geology studies. We know he will love it. Thank you, Mrs D. D.