The Dinosaur Hunters

A True Story of Scientific Rivalry & the Discovery of the Prehistoric World

In the early nineteenth century, a country doctor, Gideon Mantell, came across mysterious fossils in the Sussex countryside. A monstrous tooth, a giant leg bone: the remains of a creature that defied all logic and reason. The son of a shoemaker, Mantell longed to make his name in the world of science. Why had God created these giant reptiles, ‘Satan’s creatures’? His name would light up the pages of history as he revealed the glorious wonders of Creation that preceded human existence.

But Mantell had rivals in his quest to solve the puzzles of prehistory. The eccentric Oxford professor, William Buckland, found giant bones while on the trail of the great Biblical flood, and a poor woman, Mary Anning, was unearthing strange new sea monsters buried in the great cliffs at Lyme. Eclipsing them all, was the celebrated anatomist, Richard Owen, who would stop at nothing to claim the glory for himself.

Richard Owen used his eminent position to ridicule his country doctor rival, while making sure he obtained Mantell’s key fossil evidence. Mantell fought back, sacrificing everything to his dream, but it was Owen who gave the giant reptiles their name: Dinosaurs. As ‘Dinomania’ swept through Victorian Britain and Owen won unrivalled acclaim, he could not resist taking his rivalry with Mantell to one final ghoulish extreme.

Media

The Dinosaur Hunters was turned into a TV drama by Granada Productions

The Dinosaur Hunters film by Granada TV, 2002

Audio Book Preview The Dinosaur Hunters Deborah Cadbury (on Google play)

The Dinosaur Hunters was Book of the Week, Radio 4, (read by Emma Fielding)

Reviews

‘Deborah Cadbury tells the extraordinary story of the dinosaur hunters extraordinarily well…No other narrative I know illustrates the human element in scientific discovery quite so dramatically.’   Richard Fortey  Evening Standard  25.9.00

‘A brilliant study…Cadbury is a wonderful writer, weaving natural history, human history and science together in a smooth, flowing tapestry that keeps you turning the pages as if her book was a thriller which of course it is, as we track the rise and fall of the dastardly Sir Richard Owen, as unscrupulous a villain as ever appeared in Victorian fiction….An important book.’ Richard Ellis The Times 8.11.00

‘This is a tale of intrigue and deception, of burning ambition and failed dreams. The bitter clashes between the men who dominated 19th century geology are exquisitely portrayed in this scholarly yet exhilarating book.’ Steve Connor The Independent  9.10.00

‘It is indeed an astonishing tale- one that really ought to have Hollywood directors beating a path to Cadbury’s door. The ferocious battle between scholars and amateurs to piece together the evidence for a lost world is relived on the pages of The Dinosaur Hunters…Cadbury has come to know the great enemies almost personally…’ Anjana Ahuja  The Times 28.9.00

‘A compelling book…with characters so vivid that the people in the BBC drama department must at this very moment be falling over each other to make the requisite sideburns and bonnets…A skilled storyteller, Cadbury exploits her characters’ differences to the full…never before have [their] strands of personal animosity, ambition and fortitude been brought together in so dextrous a fashion.’ Simon Garfield, Financial Times 16/17.12.00

‘A marvellous read…fresh insights and an artfully woven story made it hard to put down. Cadbury has taken a great deal of trouble to go back to original letters and diaries. Her scene setting is especially impressive. The picture of power, snobbery and class among professionals in early 19th century England is vividly told.’   Michael Benton  New Scientist  7.10.00

‘Deborah Cadbury has made this true story a compulsive read…There is a wonderful character list straight out of Dickens, with toadying worthies, academic eccentrics, and pompous priests, along with a heady mixture of ambition and skulduggery.’ Douglas Palmer   The Herald, Scotland.   11.11.00

‘A captivating tale of dinosaur intrigue…do not be deceived by the easy style of the Dinosaur Hunters. Cadbury has done her research. This is a story we should all know, a defining part of contemporary western culture. I can’t think of a better introduction.’ Mike Pitts  Sunday Times 22.10.00

‘A fine historical account of four people and four decades that shaped the understanding of dinosaurs in England…It is an all too human story of the struggle to comprehend an alien past set against personal struggles for recognition, scientific integrity, and ideology. Highly recommended… British Journal for the History of Science.  Kevin Padian, University of California, March 2001

‘For sheer narrative pleasure I’d have to recommend Deborah Cadbury’s [Terrible Lizard] …Cadbury, a BBC television producer, turns what could have been just a string of anecdotes into high drama. Much of her success comes from the depth of her research: she has scoured diaries, letters, newspaper archives and can tell her story in the words of the people who lived it…’ Carl Zimmer  Scientific American. May 2001.

‘A scholarly account infused with rare drama and suspense: read it not only for the science, but to learn what happened to all these wonderful characters.’ Kirkus Reviews.

‘Deborah Cadbury writes the best kind of popular scientific history. She is scrupulously scholarly, but still able to produce a narrative that is as engaging as any detective novel…As long as there are books as good as these, then the current craze for popular science looks set to last for a good while yet.’ Kathryn Hughes The Tablet  9.12.00

‘This is a wonderful book, evoking a time when science required remarkable people to conduct it.’   Ros Coward  Observer 15.10.00

‘A story of intrigue, genius and desperation…explored in riveting detail.’ Viv Groskop  Daily Express 7.10.00

‘Cadbury makes much of the rivalry between Owen and Mantell, and to good effect. Her focus on Owen’s injustices against Mantell and Owen’s corresponding rise to fame…lends momentum to her narrative. This is a must-read book for dinosaur enthusiasts and for anyone who has ever wondered about the source of our present day assumptions- and unanswered questions- about human origins.’ Publisher’s Weekly  Jennifer Chikes 7.5.01

‘Cadbury’s book is extremely well researched and reads like a novel with colourful and eccentric characters…This excellent book should satisfy the historian as well as the ardent dinosaurophile.’  Sarah Barnett  Focus  October 2000

‘Fascinating…[Cadbury] allows the characters to drift into view and eventually bounces from discovery to discovery to climactic effect.’ Mick Middles Manchester Evening News 6.10.2000

‘Make no bones about it, this is great! A ripping yarn of ambition, intrigue, and mystery in which the fossil hunters hands were as dirty in their dealings with each other as in their efforts to extract bones from the earth….’ Eastern Daily Press  4.11.00

‘Deborah Cadbury could have called her book Dinosaur Wars, for her riveting account of the founding fathers of palaeontology is a tale of subterfuge, back-stabbing and character assassination on a Machiavellian scale…Cadbury has penned a fascinating tale of painstaking detective work and vicious in-fighting’ John Lee, Sept 30th South China Morning Post

‘Cadbury’s dramatic rendition of the first dinosaur hunters’ stories captures the religious and scientific ramifications of early fossil finds. These stories forever changed our views of evolutionary history…’ Science News June 2001

‘Cadbury makes the career struggles of the men and women who first described dinosaurs as real as yesterday’s pink slip. Jurassic England was red in tooth and claw. In the gentlemanly scientific society of Georgian England, it still was…We hold our breath as we turn the pages to discover if its what a man knows that will win the day, or if its who he knows that counts.’ Diana Muir Boston Christian Science Monitor 5.31.01

‘This smoothly written volume tells the remarkable story of the bitter clashes in the 19th century between two men, Gideon Mantell and Richard Owen…A really enjoyable read.’  Charles Osbourne The Sunday Telegraph 8.7.01

‘In a book that brilliantly combines popular science and popular history, Cadbury evokes the rivalry between Owen and Mantell and recounts how the age of the dinosaurs was slowly unveiled to the Victorians…’ Sunday Times, 5.8.01

‘From the publisher of Longitude, a scintillating study that similarly brings novelistic colour and narrative shape to the history of science…’ John Dugdale The Guardian 30.6.01

‘The dinosaur hunters’ work spawned a fascination which continues today in films such as Dinosaur…this is a book that is at once interesting and satisfying,’  Mail on Sunday. 24.12.00

‘This is popular history, and what it gives is a feel of the excitement and newness of this strange new science…a vivid story well told.’ New Directions Jan 2001

‘One of the best popular science histories, The Dinosaur Hunters brilliantly evokes the Dickensian world of early Victorian science and society. Deborah Cadbury has steeped herself in the intricacies of the scientific debates of the time.’ Amazon.co.uk .