As a big fan of going outdoors and looking for small things near my feet, I expected to enjoy this book about pebbles and pebble-hunting. Newly republished with a beautiful cover and a nice fold-out, it makes a very pretty object. Robert MacFarlane's introduction also entices, promising a book free from geological jargon and written with heart. I don't wholly disagree, although there is still more than enough jargon for me.

More problematic is that this book, originally published in 1954, is republished without footnotes anywhere denoting where information is outdated. As a lay reader, I know some of the information to be untrue or updated today, such as the claim that we know with a certainty that there have been precisely four ice ages (there have been at least five). But with a lack of in-depth expertise in geology I don't know enough to recognise where else the information might be incorrect. Without this, the book becomes a slog filled with doubt, written with conviction that makes it all the more dubious. A nice piece of writing archaeology to see how people once thought, but unfortunately not an enjoyable book by itself.