Our member Colin Speakman’s latest book under the Gritstone imprint has been in the news recently, and is getting some great reviews from book critics.
Here’s a few of the ones we’ve noticed from Professor Colin Waters (Yorkshire Geological Society), Peter Hogarth (Yorkshire Philosphical Society), Roly Smith (Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild), the North Yorkshire Moors Association and the Darlington and Stockton Times.
If you are interested in the history of science, particularly one of the great contributors to the development of geology as a science, and have a love of the county of Yorkshire, I heartily recommend this book.
Professor Colin Waters, Yorkshire Geological Society
Although ‘this book does not attempt to be a biography of Phillips’, it does a pretty good job as such. But it is also much more than a biography, conveying Phillips’ -and the author’s –enthusiasm: a veritable Excursion around the Yorkshire Mountains, Rivers and Sea Coast in its own right…
…This book –lavishly illustrated –is not primarily a geological treatise: but those who think they are not particularly interested in geology will undoubtedly learn more geology than they realise, thanks to Colin Speakman’s and John Phillips’ enthusiasm…
…What better way to escape the confines of lockdown than to travel through time and space with John Phillips?
Peter Hogarth, Yorkshire Philosophical Society
It places Phillips as not only a pioneering geologist, but also as one of the great walker-writers and interpreters of the Yorkshire countryside….
…Of course Speakman himself is a distinguished member of that band of teachers and guidebook authors which has followed in the footsteps of Phillips in interpreting the moors and dales of Yorkshire to the visitor.
Roly Smith, Outdoor Focus (the magazine of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild)
“Using words and rare photographs in his absorbing book, Speakman shares Phillips’ passion for the Yorkshire landscape across the Dales, Moors and Coast.”
Darlington & Stockton Times
Peopled with a host of scientific personalities and characters of the times and packed with absorbing detail, this informative book is a satisfying and entertaining read that will go a long way to giving due recognition to the influential legacy of one of our finest outdoor writers and scientists, John Phillips, an extraordinary traveller through time.
Voice – Journal of the North Yorkshire Moors Association
