Monday, February 15, 2010

Digging for the past - Remarkable Creatures

Several years ago I purchased a book called the Dragon Seekers about fossil hunters in Dorset in Southern England. One of the major characters in the book was a woman called Mary Anning who had grown up going against the grain of 19th century English life. She was a fossil hunter. She looked for fossils on the beaches of Dorset and then would sell the fossils to scientists. She was one of the first dinosaur hunters in the world and she was a woman. She is credited with discovering the first ichthyosaur skeleton and the first two plesiosaur skeletons ever found.


Tracey Chevalier is not one of my favourite authors. She writes novels based on history and some of them are of historical times and people that I do like reading about. Other novels she writes are of people and times that I dont like reading about.

Tracy's last book was called Burning Bright - about the painter and poet William Blake. Not my cup of tea at all.

But Tracy's newest novel I DO want to read. Its about Mary Anning. It's called Remarkable Creatures and it was published around August of 2009. I have to find Remarkable Creatures and read it.

Thanks to Ragdoll for bringing this book and video to my attention.

3 comments:

Claire said...

I read Remarkable Creatures by Chevalier and thought it was a wonderful book. Interestingly, there is another book coming out this spring featuring Mary Anning; it is Curiosity by Joan Thomas.

Francesca Thomas said...

Must find Curiosity by Joan Thomas. Thank you for that detail, Claire.

Francesca Thomas said...

I completely forgot about this comment and blogged about Curiosity on March 23rd. I have reserved it at the library.
Still waiting for Remarkable Creature which I have also reserved.