Behind the scenes at the museum.
The second book in my trio of popular science books is also the second most complex in style but the least important. I've come out of the experience of reading it with a lot of trivia, but not a lot of science I didn't know previously. Your experience may vary - I've done a lot of reading in the biological sciences over the years.
However, this does not mean that Richard Fortey's Dry Store Room No 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum is not worth reading. Far from it.
Richard Fortey is one of the world's greatest experts on trilobites (and his pop science book on the subject Trilobite! is one I have re-read several times.) He is also one of our most lucid science writers, and gets a double entry in The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing (ed: Richard Dawkins) which I ought to read properly and review, instead of just keeping it in my bedroom to dip into, to congratulate myself on how many of the excerpted books I own, and make notes on those I need to read real soon now. Fortey's scientific credentials are indisputable: he is an FRS, a past president of the Geological Society of London and, until last year, was he was Senior Palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, where he spent most of his working life. It places him in an ideal position to write this book.
Fortey always writes in a very personal fashion, and his own viewpoint has always pervaded his books. Now, however, he lets himself go, and personal experiences take centre stage as he takes you with him on his youthful explorations of one of London's great institutions. It is the first time that he has written what is basically a memoir - though one with lots of science and history tucked in here and there. This is the story both of his time at the Natural History Museum and of the history of the buildings, the collections and the people who worked there. If you want to know how a great biological/geological museum works now and has worked in the past, this is the book for you. It also teaches you a lot about taxonomy, biological research, specimen storage, and Civil Service politics, and takes a few sideswipes at creationists and politicians. It is full of stories of astonishing dedication and ridiculous eccentricity. (I was very taken with the story of the scientist who tried on his new (pre-scuba) diving suit after hours and couldn't get out of it, so had to wander down Kensington High Street making wild gestures as he tried to find someone to free him.)
It is witty (occasionally hilarious) and interesting and passionate, and a great read, as well as being far more light-hearted than, say his The Earth: An Intimate History. Above all, it's fun. Go and enjoy.
However, this does not mean that Richard Fortey's Dry Store Room No 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum is not worth reading. Far from it.
Richard Fortey is one of the world's greatest experts on trilobites (and his pop science book on the subject Trilobite! is one I have re-read several times.) He is also one of our most lucid science writers, and gets a double entry in The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing (ed: Richard Dawkins) which I ought to read properly and review, instead of just keeping it in my bedroom to dip into, to congratulate myself on how many of the excerpted books I own, and make notes on those I need to read real soon now. Fortey's scientific credentials are indisputable: he is an FRS, a past president of the Geological Society of London and, until last year, was he was Senior Palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, where he spent most of his working life. It places him in an ideal position to write this book.
Fortey always writes in a very personal fashion, and his own viewpoint has always pervaded his books. Now, however, he lets himself go, and personal experiences take centre stage as he takes you with him on his youthful explorations of one of London's great institutions. It is the first time that he has written what is basically a memoir - though one with lots of science and history tucked in here and there. This is the story both of his time at the Natural History Museum and of the history of the buildings, the collections and the people who worked there. If you want to know how a great biological/geological museum works now and has worked in the past, this is the book for you. It also teaches you a lot about taxonomy, biological research, specimen storage, and Civil Service politics, and takes a few sideswipes at creationists and politicians. It is full of stories of astonishing dedication and ridiculous eccentricity. (I was very taken with the story of the scientist who tried on his new (pre-scuba) diving suit after hours and couldn't get out of it, so had to wander down Kensington High Street making wild gestures as he tried to find someone to free him.)
It is witty (occasionally hilarious) and interesting and passionate, and a great read, as well as being far more light-hearted than, say his The Earth: An Intimate History. Above all, it's fun. Go and enjoy.