Under a Metal Sky

A lyrical meditation on the riches beneath our feet… Marsden’s sense of awe is palpable… he sees geology as a metaphor for civilisation, the earth’s layers echoing those of human memory * FT *[Marsden’s] enthusiasm for the subject is contagious, and he writes with a rock-collector’s eye for glittering details. One senses this is a book he has been longing to write for years * Guardian *Mind-boggling… deeply thoughtful, well-written and illuminating journey through the world of minerals and an exploration of their impact on the life and history of our planet * Literary Review *Philip Marsden’s new book is a wunderkammer, and well worth reading … The charm and the genius of this book is in its ability not to pigeonhole itself * Daily Telegraph *A love letter to these key resources hidden within rocks and buried beneath the earth… Under a Metal Sky is a gracefully meticulous book, full of lyrical nature writing and didactic memoir. Accompanied by a lively cast of characters - from heavy-metal obsessed miners in Austria to the copper-loving poet William Blake - Marsden takes the reader on a tour of our metallic history * New Statesman *Glorious… a nuanced work… This is a scholarly work rich in history, science and ecology… [Marsden] has a gift for fusing the technical facts with his personal travel narrative * Country Life *Under a Metal Sky takes the reader through a strange and mystical history of metals that is as dark as it is dazzling… As compelling and sometimes fantastical as a novel… A timely reminder of the dangers of an economy of extraction, detailed in a similarly dreamlike prose to Robert McFarlane and WG Sebald * Irish Times *Absorbing… It is a vast subject, and Marsden has a prospector’s eye for finding glitter * TLS *A luminously rich exploration of the mineral wonderland beneath our feet. Imaginatively travelled and beautiful written – Colin ThubronA 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 a number of works of travel writing, fiction and non-fiction, including The Bronski House, The Spirit-Wrestlers and The Levelling Sea, and for Granta: Rising Ground and The Summer Isles. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and his work has been translated into fifteen languages. He lives in Cornwall.