Today saw the launch of Christopher Lloyd’s latest book in the What on Earth series, it is called What on Earth? Wallbook. You might recall my recent Blog post on one of his previous books.
The new book is an interesting concept because you can read it like a book or display it on a wall. It contains 13.7 billion years of history in timeline which is just over 7 feet long and features over 1000 pictures. Chris sees the timeline as a visual way of taking in the enormous, but compelling story of planet, life and people over the last 13.7 billion years.
TWELVE streams of colour provide the backdrops along a timeline on which all the major events of natural and human history unfold. Space, Earth, Sky, Sea, Land and Humanity account for the story of evolution while Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australasia convey the rise and fall of human civilisations.
At the top of the timeline is a series of globes. To begin with they track the movement of the world’s continental plates which collide into a single supercontinent, and then prise apart again, a geological cycle that repeats over millions of years.
Later on, these globes reflect a similar rhythm with the rise and fall of human civilisations. Empires, like the Earth’s crust, erupt, collide and crumple, but their converging and splitting happens on a far tighter scale where centimetres measure centuries not millions of years…
On the back is a 7,000 narrative guide that tells the story in words, cross referring the most seismic moments in global history with the timeline overleaf…
You can find out more about the book and the concept behind it on the newly launched dedicated web site.
In conjunction with the book launch Chris launched an appeal for people to help him compile a dossier of strategies that could and should be employed to engage our nation’s young minds with a thirst for learning:
Please send me your best and worst memories of education.
Perhaps you are being educated now or maybe you are an educator? If so, what engages you in learning? What do you find motivating and inspiring? What in your experience makes an effective learning environment – at home or school? How should the curriculum be organised? What is the right balance between learning and testing?
I am committed to collating and presenting these ideas, along with a copy of the What on Earth? Wallbook, to Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, at the Conservative Party Conference in early October. I shall also post a copy here at www.whatonearthbooks.com for you to download.Tell your friends about it – involve anyone you know who has an interest in eradicating the cancer of boredom from our schools. Who knows? Perhaps officials at the Department of Education will then turn their heads to making sense of our blue-sky thinking and convert at least some of our creative ideas into practical policy.
Please email your ideas to chris@whatonearthbooks.com
It looks wonderful. A huge endeavour!
I will definitely be getting a copy of it.
Very interesting. I hadn’t seen quite that concept before.
Hmm… my worst experience of “education”? Being told that stories written in a very old “book” (actually several books cobbled together and edited endless times) were true by people who didn’t even know who wrote the book, or why and couldn’t possibly judge its accuracy. My best? Probably Day 1 of Secondary School, first chemistry class with Mr Leuchars performing an hour of awesome demonstrations that I might be imprisoned (certainly sacked) for performing in that way nowadays.
It ties in with his first book ‘What on Earth Happened’ which covers the history of the world from the big bang to the current day. It is a very engaging way of seeing history which you usually get fed in chunks out of order.
I think I would have to do a whole post on the my best and worst experiences, but for now:
Worst = On one occasion when a teacher came out of the classroom to call the pupils into the classroom he said ‘get in here you pigs’.
Best = Some of the teachers.
A very interesting post Cherie.
I too have a similar chart.
Mine is called “The Timechart History of the World” and is a little longer than seven feet.
Mine traces 6000 years of world history. It is over 30 feet long and is based on the famous and very rare Victorian wallchart held in the British Museum, London.
It is interesting that Christopher has managed to get 13.7 billion years into seven feet whereas the Victorian author (?) in 1890 needed 30 feet to only cover 6000.
That sounds a fascinating chart too. I hadn’t heard of that before, but I found it when I did a Google search. Is it on display at the British Museum?
Firstly I must confess mine is only 15 feet long! Well, it’s not 30ft, but long enough.
I guess my copy is printed half size maybe?
It is based on “Deacon’s Synchronological Chart of Universal History” which may be in the British Library as it states that it is reproduced by courtesy of BLib.
I still have my pass to the British Library……but it has expired!
Really don’t know where the original is.
Sorry.
I do believe the original is in the British Museum (from my Google search), I just wondered if it was on display for me to see
Sounds like a mammoth undertaking.
I think the books were more of a mammoth task.
It looks amazing …. I love all the colour too, it looks full of vibrant history. I wish my teachers at school could have portrayed it like that
I wish my teachers had done that too. I was taught about the industrial revolution (I guess that was easy due to Shropshire being a key place for the industrial revolution) even though we were promised a broader history in our second year…
We had asked the question about the broader history (maybe kings and queens?), we were led to expect that would happen in the second year. It didn’t we were disappointed…