Hugh Miller: Stonemason, Geologist, Writer

Hugh Miller was born in 1802 in Cromarty, Ross-shire. He started his working life as a stonemason’s apprentice; he later became a social commentator and crusader. He also inspired in others an interest in fossils. His was a household name in his lifetime, not only in Scotland but across the English-speaking world. Michael Taylor’s biography – the first synoptic reassessment to draw upon new research – quotes generous chunks of Miller’s own (very readable) writings and covers the full range of Hugh Miller, from stonemason, through geologist and editor to private family man, with a surprising conclusion regarding his suicide in 1856.