Philip Marsden-Under a Metal Sky

About

The Bookery is delighted to welcome award-winning authorPhilip Marsden for an evening of conversation with bestselling writerSasha Swire.

Join us for an evening of discovery and exploration as Philip Marsden discusses his latest book, U nder a Metal Sky: A Journey Through Minerals, Greed and Wonder . This extraordinary work traces the dazzling achievements and dark consequences of our ability to extract what we want from the earth, presenting a fascinating new perspective on European history and on our troubled relationship with the natural world.

Since humans first discovered the magical properties of minerals and metals, we have been transformed. Ochre prompted the earliest examples of self-expression and art; tin and copper helped instigate the Bronze Age and later the Industrial Revolution; silver kick-started the engines of global trade and lithium fuels our digital age. Each of these substances generated a leap forward in technology, each one opened the imagination a little further producing in us amazement and wonder, but also destruction and greed.

Under a Metal Sky begins and ends in Philip Marsdens homeland of Cornwall, one of the worlds great geological hotspots. Travelling eastwards into Europe, he examines how the extraction of peat propelled the Netherlands to world prominence but also imperilled its very existence. Continuing up the Rhine into the heart of the continent, he uncovers stories of potent and tempting resourcesfrom iron-rich meteorites to radium and mercury, and the gold-bearing mountains of Georgia. Along the way, Marsden explores precious seams of ideas, from science to alchemy, mysticism to ecologyand those questing souls who pursued them, like Paracelsus, Rudolf II, Goethe, William Blake and Marie Curie.

A book of breathtaking wealth and depth, as passionate as it is clear-eyed (and funny). Marsden takes the history of metals and, from it, creates a dazzling history of humanity and our relationship with this planet. It can only be alchemy. Tom Bullough

Philip Marsden is the award-winning author of acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction, including The Bronski House, The Levelling Sea, Rising Ground and The Summer Isle s. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, his writing blends history, travel and cultural insight with lyrical prose.
Joining Philip in conversation is Sasha Swire, author of the bestselling Diary of an MPs Wife and her latest book Edgeland: A Slow Walk West . In Edgeland, Swire charts a decade-long journey along the South West Coast Path, offering a deeply personal and literary exploration of Britains western fringes. Her perspective on landscape, resilience and the edges of our world promises a fascinating dialogue with Marsdens themes of geology and human ambition.

At the end of the evening, there will be a wonderful opportunity to meet Philip and Sasha, chat with them, and have your books signed or personally dedicated.