The story of a Quaker, Luke Howard, who in 1802 named the clouds, a defining point in natural history and meteorology. His poetic names and groundbreaking work made him internationally famous and a cult figure for Romantics like Shelley and Goethe.
Richard Hamblyn was born in 1965 and is a graduate of the universities of Essex and Cambridge, where he wrote a doctoral dissertation on the early history of geology in Britain. He lives and works in London, and is currently working on a collection of stories about natural disasters in history.
'Elegantly written and richly diverting' Guardian