On the Moor Science, History and Nature on a Country Walk

On the Moor shows how a routine walk in the countryside is enhanced by an appreciation of science, history, and natural history. To the uninitiated, the Moor above Hebden Bridge in the West Yorkshire Pennines might seem little more than acre upon acre of heather and the occasional red grouse. But Richard Carter's excursions on to his local patch lead him to examine such diverse topics as: Charles Darwin's weird experiments and ailments; the 17th-century skeptic Sir Thomas Browne; Celtic languages; Bronze Age burials; evolution's kludgy compromises; bird migration; DNA barcoding; skull anatomy; where Earth got its water; the mapping of Great Britain; grouse disease; Scott of the Antarctic; how to define a species; Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath; the Bront�s; the Laws of Thermodynamics; why the sky is blue (and sunsets red); the Greenhouse Effect; the songs of skylarks; snipe courtship; vapour trails; rooks' faces; the best way to cook a wheatear. (Oh, and there's even a plane crash!)