<p><b>Winner of the Royal Society Science Book.</b><br><br><b>'Exhilaratingly whizzes through billions of years . . . Gee is a marvellously engaging writer' - <i>The Times</i></b><br><br>For billions of years, Earth was an inhospitably alien place &ndash; covered with churning seas, slowly crafting its landscape through volcanic eruptions, the atmosphere in a constant state of chemical flux. And yet, despite facing literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter, life has been extinguished and picked itself up to evolve again.<br><br>From that first foray to the spread of early hominids who later became <i>Homo sapiens</i>, life has persisted, undaunted. <i>A (Very) Short History of Life: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Chapters</i> is an enlightening story of survival, of persistence, illuminating the delicate balance within which life has always existed, and continues to exist today. It is our planet like you&rsquo;ve never seen it before.<br><br>Dr Henry Gee presents creatures from &lsquo;gregarious&rsquo; bacteria populating the seas to duelling dinosaurs in the Triassic period, to magnificent mammals with the future in their grasp. Life&rsquo;s evolutionary steps &ndash; from the development of a digestive system to the awe of creatures taking to the skies in flight &ndash; are conveyed with an up-close intimacy.<br><br><b>'Henry Gee makes the kaleidoscopically changing canvas of life understandable and exciting.' &ndash; Jared Diamond, author of <i>Guns, Germs, and Steel</i></b></p>