Flint

‘If you like walking through the English countryside and the deep history of these isles, you will adore this vivid, personal, upbeat book about the hundred varieties of flint gleaming just under our feet. It’s an archaeologist’s love letter to a landscape trampled by prehistoric elephants, bears, boars, Romans, Saxons, Romanies and modern picnickers. Joanne Bourne makes the reader feel her happiness as she spots in a wood or on a chalk beach yet another shape or colour of the ancient stone that obsesses her, or as a Red Admiral butterfly curls its tongue for the salt on her arm’ Maggie Gee

‘Fascinating, evocative and absorbing, Flint is an absolute joy. I savoured it to the last page’ Lara Maiklem, author of Mudlarking

‘Flint is a beautifully written love letter to the history and mystique of a stone that has shaped human civilisation for millennia. Joanne Bourne’s enchanting narrative and personal anecdotes bring to life the magic and enduring significance of flint in a way that is both educational and deeply heartfelt’ Alastair Humphreys, author of Local

‘Joanne Bourne writes beautifully and convincingly. I liked it very much and learned a lot’ Liz Trenow

‘An absolute gem of a book, that delights from the very first page. I have never thought about flint at all but now I am devouring this gorgeously written mine of history, geology and nature writing and making up for lost time’ Polly Clark

‘A unique, well-informed and enjoyable read that puts a new slant on this wondrous material from prehistory to the modern day’ Nick Card, director of the Ness of Brodgar

‘Publishing once gave us a well-regarded history of the pencil. There has been a good book devoted to the tulip. Even the colour mauve has been given its own tome. This quirky, enchanting ramble around the flintscapes of south-east England belongs in the same niche, where authors tell you about a single thing that turns out to contain multitudes, telling the nigh-mystical story of a stone that has, with quiet majesty, borne witness to all human history’ Jasper Rees, Daily Telegraph

‘Bourne interweaves the factual and fanciful, prehistory, culture, folklore and a profound love of nature, in this paean to Earth’s second-hardest substance. Lyrical, wise, whimsical, sparky as the ancient fire-starter itself, and at moments hilarious. The last line made me cry’ Saga Magazine

‘A hymn to just one rock type in many of its forms, this is the most readable book, new or old, on the earth sciences that I have met in 2024. Unusual, entertaining and informative, I shall keep Flint on the shelf so that I can read it again when I need to be uplifted and inspired. I give it my highest recommendation’ Geology Today

‘Describing herself as a flint obsessive, Bourne uses her personal journey to frame a larger narrative about humanity’s long relationship with this material’ Geographical

‘Joanne Bourne's love of her subject is infectious. You wander the fields with her and, like her, start to observe what is often unconsidered’ Suffolk Gardens Trust

‘Shares the wonder she feels and the deep, old stories hidden in the flint landscape’ Ramsgate Recorder