Europe cover art

Europe

The First 100 Million Years

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A place of exceptional diversity, rapid change, and high energy, for the past 100 million years Europe has literally been at the crossroads of the world. By virtue of its geology and geography, evolution in Europe proceeds faster than elsewhere. The continent has absorbed wave after wave of immigrant species over the millennia, taking them in, transforming them, and sometimes hybridising them.

Flannery's exploration of the nature of Europe reveals a compelling intellectual drama, with a cast of heroic researchers - of whom Tim Flannery is the most recent - whose discoveries have changed our understanding of life itself.

 Biological Sciences Ecology Europe Evolution Evolution & Genetics Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Paleontology Natural History Africa

Critic reviews

Vivid . . . a compelling and authoritative narrative of the evolution of Europe's flora and fauna . . . an exciting book, full of wonder, affection and hope (James McConnachie)
A rich, illuminating journey... Tim Flannery's natural history takes us from the dinosaur's demise 66 million years ago to today
Unfolds the dazzling array of climates and ecosystems that have emerged in Europe, along with the resultant species that have evolved in and disseminated across it . . . Flannery takes great pleasure in opening up this world of surprises, describing it with verve and wit (Robert Mayhew)
Flannery weaves geology and biology into the history of developing societies and the emergence of conflict, both personal and military (Tom Cameron)
Bold and brilliant evocation of Europes forever vanished yet paradoxically present as engrams beneath our streets, in every landscape feature (Derek Turner)
Thrillingly captured . . . a bold and rich panorama of Europe's ecological history . . . Flannery's superb study shows that Europe is a land of "exceptional dynamism" and resilience
All stars
Most relevant
Such broad scope makes it a whistlestop tour, but engaging and provocative... makes you think.

Everyone should hear/read this.

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Flannery is a knowledgeable and able writer. He brings together a sublime array of facts and connections. But? Well its the natural history which is the main lure of this book and this natural history is dspensed in a very piecemeal and whimsical manner. Or so it seems to this listener. What's wrong with a clear narrative based on time, evolution & geology? Still. There is gold in this book. But you must endure the patter & chatter of wisdom to find it.

Whimsical

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Didn’t like the narration, not sure that accents were necessary in a non-fiction work. A lot of interesting info but didn’t get a sense as to why this book should be called Europe and not Eurasian natural history.

Interesting but scattered

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The printed book comes with a large number of back-and-white maps, a section of colour photographs, and many footnotes that are often informative and diverting (and are in addition to endnotes, which give bibliographic information). The audio doesn't perform the footnotes and contains no pdf versions of the visual material or endnotes, making it significantly less informative than the physical book.

The performance is matter-of-fact and copes fairly well with the large number of Latinate technical terms, although often pausing before pronouncing them (suggesting they were added in later?) and frequently getting the stress-position wrong. Ditto for other foreign Proper nouns and place names in the book as a whole.

No footnotes and no pictures in the audio version

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The natural history content is very interesting but the reading is marred by mispronunciation and terrible English accents for quoted passages.

Interesting content but poor reading

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