The Fossil Woman: A Life of Mary Anning

by Tom Sharpe

Described as ‘the greatest fossilist the world ever knew’, a fully illustrated biography of Mary Anning is long overdue. Drawing on recent research into her life and times, yet always aware of her character and personality, Tom Sharpe has taken a fresh and often surprising look at the achievements of a woman who is finally gaining the recognition she merits.
Mary Anning was born in 1799 in the Dorset town of Lyme Regis, dying there when only forty-seven. She made her living finding and selling fossils. Her remarkable discoveries revealed a previously unknown world of extinct reptiles preserved in the surrounding cliffs and foreshore, thus helping turning our knowledge of life on earth on its head. Despite her humble origins and lack of education, when still in her early twenties she became a leading figure in the geological community of the early nineteenth century, and was known throughout Europe.
Mary Anning’s knowledge and skill brought few advantages. Condemned by inequalities of class, gender, and wealth, she never reaped the rewards enjoyed by her fellow geologists and palaeontologists – rewards all too often won on the back of her discoveries. After her death she gradually slipped into relative obscurity, her name losing its link to the fossils she found.
Happily, that has all changed. Recently she was included on a list of the ten most influential women in the history of British science. Her reputation continues to grow, and this new biography celebrates the life of someone who has at last taken her rightful place in the astonishing story of fossils and the 200 million-year-old Jurassic world in which they were formed.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Science, History

272 pages, Hardcover

Published November 3, 2020

About the author

Tom Sharpe was an English satirical author, born in London and educated at Lancing College and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. After National Service with the Royal Marines he moved to South Africa in 1951, doing social work and teaching in Natal, until deported in 1961.

His work in South Africa inspired the novels Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure. From 1963 until 1972 he was a History lecturer at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, which inspired his "Wilt" series Wilt, The Wilt Alternative, Wilt on High and Wilt in Nowhere.

His novels feature bitter and outrageous satire of the apartheid regime (Riotous Assembly and its sequel Indecent Exposure), dumbed- or watered-down education (the Wilt series), English class snobbery (Ancestral Vices, Porterhouse Blue, Grantchester Grind), the literary world (The Great Pursuit), political extremists of all stripes, political correctness, bureaucracy and stupidity in general. Characters may indulge in bizarre sexual practices, and coarser characters use very graphic and/or profane language in dialogue. Sharpe often parodies the language and style of specific authors commonly associated with the social group held up for ridicule. Sharpe's bestselling books have been translated into many languages.

Reviews

[Simon Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting book that really kept me interested from start to finish, when you read it if you’ve been lucky enough to visit museums such as Oxfords Natural History and Londons you’ll start to realise just how many of her fossils you will have likely missed on your travels and it definitely makes you want to go back as well as visit Lyme Regis.

A book every fossil fan should read, sadly a little short but that doesn’t take away from its excellence wonderful pictures and illustrations too, if ever there is an update I’m pretty sure they’ll include quite a bit on the Mary Anning Statue that now strides proudly in Lyme Regis.
I’m Now Reading Jurassic Blue by Errol Fuller and Chris Moore as the perfect follow up.

[Dr Humphrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this life of the great Mary Anning and how she developed from a poor background to be celebrated in the highest scientific circles of the first half of the 19th century. Nice sets of colour plates help to flesh out her life and work and who she met. However, towards the latter half of the book, the author gets too drawn into recording rather dry details of her collections and life so it loses its vitality.

[Michael Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can only assume this was horrendously under-marketed, because it’s both well researched and highly readable, yet apparently hardly anyone even knows it exists.

Mary Anning is a tricky person to write a biography about, because she’s enormously important because of her contributions to science, and yet mysterious because so little of her correspondence etc has survived. Tom Sharpe does a great job of sorting out what we know, what’s plausible, and what’s speculation.

The resulting book shows that she was a true expert, often several steps ahead of the scientists who bought her fossils. It reveals very little about her personal life, which is frustrating - but it can’t be helped, and it’s to Sharpe’s credit that she emerges as such a fully-formed person despite the gaps in our knowledge.

[Rachel Welton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched, and a definite authority, but a little dry to read.

[Teemu Öhman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author Tom Sharpe must be commended for a difficult task well done, for The Fossil Woman really is well researched. The amount of old letters, notebooks, newspapers and apparently also fossils (or at least descriptions thereof) he has gone through is impressive. Particularly given how little we actually know about her, Sharpe has managed to come up with a believable (and likeable) person that apparently was Mary Anning. And despite the amount of detail he gets into, the text remains readable and enjoyable. That's not an easy task.

The number of the names of people mentioned in the book was at times approaching (although never quite reaching) overwhelming levels. That’s why the Who’s who -section at the end of the book is, in principle, very useful. It just should have been a complete one. It’s a bit odd that while the notes and references are really extensive, Sharpe didn't bother to make the Whos's who more complete. That was a bit annoying.

The way The Fossil Woman ended was the biggest flaw of the book. Yes, of course in a book like this it’s important to know where the numerous fossils Anning found are located nowadays (as far as can be known), but that’s not a good way to end a biography. I would have preferred something a bit more uplifting.

In this day and age, from the point of view of a middle-aged white man it was refreshing to see that Anning's male friends and colleagues were not demonised and turned into complete chauvinists. Yes, occasionally Anning, who had no formal training in palaeontology or geology and who came from very humble working class background, was belittled. More often her name was omitted when descriptions of the fossils that she found were presented, but this was typical at the time (especially when the fossil specimens changed hands several times). Her famous friends and colleagues like William Buckland and Henry De la Beche respected her unmatched skills in finding and preparing the fossils, as well as her vast knowledge about their anatomy. And they helped her financially on several occasions. For several years I have had a soft spot for the eccentric Buckland, so it was a bit of a relief to see that he was definitely a good guy, at least when it comes to the way she treated Anning.

During her lifetime, Anning was widely known and respected throughout the scientific circles of Europe. In England she was a celebrity. And she was much more than "just" a fossil hunter. Previously, I had the impression that at some point later on Anning was more or less forgotten about until the 1990s or so, after which she's of course been everywhere. After reading The Fossil Woman I'm not so sure anymore. Obviously she hasn't been a household name, but it doesn't seem that she ever really was "forgotten". That was a nice thing to learn (or at least that's the impression I got from The Fossil Woman).

All in all The Fossil Woman is a wonderful book that I greatly enjoyed reading. It vastly enriched the view I had about Mary Anning and her colleagues. And although the focus wasn’t on the everyday struggles of being a working class woman in the 1800s, I got a better idea about that too.

The Fossil Woman is highly recommended for everyone interested in the history of palaeontology, geology or science in general.

Overall: 4.75/5

[Emma Musson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells the story of the famous fossil hunter Mary Anning, tracing her life from childhood through to her death and legacy beyond. Lovingly crafted by Tom Sharpe, it’s built on solid research, as shown by the extensive “further reading” section at the end.

I picked up this book after visiting Lyme Regis in the summer. It caught my eye in the museum shop, and after enjoying my time at the Fossil Festival, it felt only right to learn more about the woman who helped put fossil hunting on the map and became one of the most recognised women in earth science. I’ve always admired strong women in history, so I was excited to dive in.

Although I’m a fan of palaeontology and fossils, I realised I knew very little about Mary Anning herself. This book certainly filled that gap. Some of the most impactful moments weren’t necessarily her fossil discoveries, but the personal events that shaped her life—such as the extraordinary incident of being struck by lightning as a child.

That said, at times the book did feel rather list-like. The detailed accounts of her everyday fossil finds and sales, while valuable, became a little repetitive and slowed the pace, especially in the middle chapters. Sharpe’s style is very factual and objective, not particularly personal or persuasive, which leaves it up to the reader to form their own view of Anning and her experiences.

Overall, I found the book informative and it definitely achieved my goal of learning more about Mary Anning. However, I can’t say I enjoyed every moment, as the structure occasionally made it a bit of a slog. Still, I would recommend it to anyone interested in Mary Anning, palaeontology, or the history of Lyme Regis. The inclusion of illustrations is a welcome touch, helping to bring the story and science to life.

[Ailsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent, in-depth book about the life of Mary Anning based on what we know from the primary sources. It was wonderfully detailed, going through her life bit by bit and providing information based on her letters and other sources as to what she was up to, how her work and fame developed, and how it impacted on her. I especially liked Sharpe's balanced presentation of her position based on her working-class status in an upper-class pursuit (geology), her piety as a Christian in the context of the threat geology posed to previous explanations for natural history, and her difficult financial circumstances. It painted a picture of a proud, intelligent woman, often bitter at the limitations life gave her, situated between worlds. While Sharpe never tries to speculate beyond reason, we still get a strong sense of her character, even when so much of her life was shrouded in mystery. The chapters are arranged around her life chronologically, and while they're sometimes organised quite weakly, with no particular theme to most of them, they're easy enough to follow. An excellent book; I feel very familiar with her life and story, now.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unexpectedly coming away from Lyme Bookshop with this book, I found myself really enjoying it. The extremely knowledgable author has been able to talk about Mary Anning as a real and well rounded person. I enjoyed that as a reader, you could pick up through details and letters what Mary's personality might have been like and the many true friendships that she enjoyed over her short life. Her fellow fossil enthusiasts at times supported and advocated for her, which is gratifying to know. This kind of knowledge is understandably missing from other Anning books and literature; her character being supposed and created for her in order to create a novel story.

I'm very much an Anning fan since finding out about her a few years ago. As the author says, it is wonderful that her name is now mentioned and known in the context of her specialisms in palaeontology; there having been many years of it being forgotten and lost. I believe her to be an important person to be aware of as she created her own scientific knowledge and expertise in a time when women were generally not permitted to do so.

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you go to Lyme Regis today, you can’t avoid Mary Anning. You certainly can’t avoid the fossils that made her famous. And any shop you visit will almost certainly mention one or the other.

She was a truly remarkable woman. Poor. Uneducated. Female. All linked and all making her as disadvantaged as you can possibly be. But it’s clear that she was as sharp as her chisels, and as bright as dawn over the cobb harbour because she is the Prima Donna of British dinosaur discovery.

Sharpes book is part hagiography, but also he’s clearly an admirer of this remarkable woman. He explores various aspects of her life in detail and searches every record available. This is a man who clearly loves Anning, Dinosaurs and Lyme Regis and this books drips with his passions.

There are pictures, a bibliography and a helpful “who’s who” which makes this an accessible and informative book for anyone else who spent childhoods (and second childhoods) scouring the beaches of Charmouth and Lyme looking for ancient treasures

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
I bought this as a souvenir from the Lyme Regis Museum. Down the street from the museum, I found Remarkable Creatures at a tiny used book shop. Now that I've read the nonfiction account of her life, the fiction is up next.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much information about the men, so little about the woman doing the discoveries

[Fiona Orr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of interesting facts but these facts are repeated more than once in some cases.

[Jillian Gs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love reading anything about Mary Anning. This reads more like a text book and is dense with information and notations. Loved the illustrations and everything about it.