Product Description

It is not as widely known as it should be that Britain has the most varied geology of any country in the world. This book is a celebration in words and pictures of what its mountains are made of, and how they got there. This in turn determines what they're like to climb, scramble on, or walk over. Why is Skiddaw slate so slippery? How do tors form? Why is gritstone so difficult? Why is Lakeland so picturesque, and the granite lands so grim and forbidding? Geology is destiny, whether it's the rubbishy nature of gullies and screes, the sculpting of valleys by ice or the landslip weirdness of Quiraing on the Isle of Skye. British mountains contain many interesting and different ingredients: gneiss and granite and gabbro; limestone and sandstone; schist and slate; the product and the debris of tectonic shifts, volcanoes, earthquakes and glaciers over many millennia. This book explains all this to the layman, from an expert but personal perspective, and will add immeasurably to the fun and satisfaction to be gained from any day in the hills.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8738 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Review
Wirth a short history of how Britain was formed and an informative but easy to understand tone, this is an essential pre-hike read. --BBC Countryfile

This is a sprightly and colourful book; the photographs are eye-openers (I wouldn't have guessed they were all from Britain) and a glossary wraps up the geological terms. --Geographical

After reading this book, you should have a much better understanding of our Lakeland hills and what is beneath your feet. --Footsteps

About the Author
Ronald Turnbull is a geographer and a walker. Author of over a dozen highly regarded walking books and guides, he has won four awards from the Outdoor Walkers Guild. Ronald lives in Thornhill in Dumfriesshire.

Customer Reviews

It Rocks!
My previous experience of Ronald Turnbull is his witty and entertaining route guides and articles in Trail and TGO. Fortunately, Granite and Grit is more of the same: witty, easy to read and very informative. The opening paragraph sums it up and gives the flavour to come: 'This is not a geology book. Well, okay, this is a geology book. But I'm not a geologist: I'm a hillwalker who likes to know what's going on under my feet.' And that's it. Technical/geological/scientific terms are used throughout the book, but are always explained. And, and this is crucial, it is NOT a dry academic text. It is witty and informative with nicely bite sized chapters.
The book covers the geology of all Britain's mountain areas making it clear that whilst Britain's geology is highly involved and complex it is within the reach of the non expert. For the first time, I've begun to grasp the difference between granite and rhyolite. A recent visit to the the Carneddau in North Wales was made hugely more exciting than normal by being able to recognise rock stratas, and beautiful pieces of milky quartz (not simply knowing that they were milky quartz but being able to understand how they formed).
When I first started reading the book I found it frustrating. Chapters would just seem to be getting going, with a nice mixture of easy science, Turnbull's own walking experiences, and good explanatory diagrams and then finish. But as I read more this approach became its greatest strength: the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It is the kind of book that you read from cover to cover first time round and then go back to, to re-read individual chapters. In this way you begin to see geology as a holistic science. If you wish it's like a jigsaw puzzle, the more pieces you fit together, the more you understand the entire picture.
And talking of pictures, the book is amply and beautifully illustrated with pictures that leave you planning trips to some of Britain's most awesomely beautiful landscapes; where, with the help of this book, that awe is increased by an understanding of the extraordinary and gigantic forces and time spans that created those landscapes.
If you like walking up,down and around mountains, and want to understand more about them, then this book is for you.

I'm a geek for liking this?
A really interesting book that makes you want to go out and walk those hills to find the features Turnbull rhapsodises about. It has made me resolve to return to Cumbria this year to follow up some of his travels.

The only carps I have are firstly it is occasionally very confusing - but geology can be like that,especially Scotland - and secondly he only deals with highlands, i.e. Scotland, Lakes and Snowdonia, which can be inaccessible to many.