![]() ![]() Despite having little or no formal education and coming from a poor working-class family, she went on to become a leading expert on fossils and discovered several other fossilised skeletons from different creatures, all now extinct. When she was about 12 years old, she and her brother discovered a large fossil which turned out to be the first example of an Ichthyosaur, a previously undescribed but now extinct creature. ![]() Mary Anning was born in Lyme Regis in 1799 and learned from her father how to collect fossils from the surrounding cliffs. Both women made major contributions to science so this is ‘lab lit’ in its purist sense. Remarkable Creaturesis a fictionalised account of the intertwined lives of Mary Anning and her friend Elizabeth Philpot. The story stayed with me and when I heard about Tracy Chevalier’s novel Remarkable Creatures, also about Mary Anning, I put it on my “to read” list for the summer holidays. Some years ago, my daughter brought a book home from the library and demanded I read it to her: Fossil Girl by Catherine Brighton, a children’s version of the story of the 19th century fossil hunter, Mary Anning. But how should we react to fictionalised accounts of real people? ![]() ![]() Discarded: female fossil scientists got no creditĪnning and Philpot are long dead, so the novelist is free to take whatever liberties she likes. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |