Collins New Naturalist Library: Early Humans

‘The tide was gently rising as the family group picked their way around the shallow pools on the mudflats of the estuary edge. They paused to watch a herd of horse grazing near the reedswamp on the far bank. A lone rhinoceros and three mammoths could be seen as silhouettes in the distance.’ Setting the scene on the Norfolk coast almost a million years ago, Ashton follows the remarkable survival of bones, stone tools and footprints which allow us to paint a picture of the first human visitors to this remote peninsula of north-west Europe. He tells the story of the faunas, floras and developing geography of Britain against the backdrop of an ever-changing climate. Above all he explores how early people began as brief visitors to this wild remote land, but over time through better ways of acquiring food and developing new technologies to deal with the world, they began to tame, shape and dominate the countryside we see today.