A Rum Affair
A True Story of Botanical Fraud
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Birlinn General
Published:20th Jun '16
Currently unavailable, our supplier has not provided us a restock date
In the 1940s, the eminent British botanist John Heslop Harrison proposed a controversial theory: that vegetation on the islands off the west coast of Scotland had survived the last Ice Age. His premise flew in the face of what most botanists believed - that no plants had survived the 10,000-year period of extreme cold. But Heslop Harrison had proof - the plants and grasses found on the isle of Rum.Harrison didn't anticipate, however, an amateur botanist called John Raven, who boldly questioned whether these grasses were truly indigenous to the area, or whether they had been transported there. This is the story of what happened when a tenacious amateur set out to find out the truth, and how he uncovered a most extraordinary fraud.
'An exciting scientific detective story'
* Times Literary Supplement *'A breezy ride ... informative and amusing'
* Washington Post Book World *'a truly ripping yarn involving night-time landings, threats and intimidation, and at the heart of it something rather sad - a scientist, clearly of great talent, who had overstepped the mark in helping 'proof' along'
* Bottle Imp *'one of the best books we have read in quite some time. Reading this book is like reading an extremely well written fictional thriller. Karl Sabbagh has done an amazing job unearthing the background to what happened, and drawing out the wider implications for science in society'
* Undiscovered ScotlaISBN: 9781780273860
Dimensions: 195mm x 130mm x 20mm
Weight: 262g
288 pages