"A fascinating tour." --"The Seattle Times""Lifts the veil on the inner penetralia of the world's premiere natural historymuseum."--"The New York Review of Books""An idiosyncratic, endearing, and colorful journey through the towers, vaults, libraries, collections, offices, and cabinets that lie beyond the public galleries." --"The Boston Globe""Fortey. . . in his affectionate portrayal of the institution in which he spent his working life. . . sneaks us behind the scenes with all the glee of a small child seeing for the first time the museum's iconic "Diplodocus "skeleton . . .always authoritative. . . the beauty of the book is that - just like a museum - you can visit the different sections in any order you choose, lingering in the places that most take your fancy. . . and there is plenty of solid science to enjoy, elucidated with brilliant flair."--"Sunday Times""Fortey has a scientist's regard for fact but a poet's delight in wonder. This is a rare intoxicating insight into a hidden community intent on unlocking the universe's myriad secrets."--"Metro""Engaging. . . .Fortey's writing is enough to make the behind-the-scenes work of the museum totally fascinating. . . . (his) delightful book, like the museum it describes, is both rambling and elegant."--"Sunday Telegraph""This book is worthy of the place it tells us about, and that is a pretty lofty chunk of praise."--"The Times""Richard Fortey's wonderful book . . . shows the unspectacular elements of the museum collection as the most interesting part of its work, while placing the well-known exhibits in a new and often comical light. . . with eccentricity flourishing unchecked among its staff Fortey has amassed a brilliant collection of anecdotes about their habits."--"Daily Telegraph""In this loving survey of his life at the museum, Fortey. . . is never less than enthused by all the museum's collections."--"Financial Times ""Compendious and entertaining. . . much of the narrative interest of the book is carried

Richard Fortey was a senior palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London. His previous books include the critically acclaimed Life: An Unauthorized Biography, short-listed for the Rhone Poulenc Prize in 1998; Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution, short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2001; and The Hidden Landscape, which won the Natural World Book of the Year in 1993. He was Collier Professor for the Public Understanding of Science in 2002 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society.