Hugh Miller

Born in Cromarty in 1802, Hugh Miller, self-educated stonemason turned bank worker, rose to become editor of The Witness newspaper. Scathing, ironic, lyrical and penetrating by turns, he condemned injustice and abuse wherever he saw them, attacked the Highland Clearances, and supported the freedom of the Church of Scotland. Miller's writings on making the best of one's life, inspired Scots from John Muir to Andrew Carnegie. A fine geologist, Miller brought many to the joys of science, helping to convinced worried Victorians that geology was not unchristian.

This new biography, quoting generous chunks of Miller himself, covers the full range of Miller, from stonemason, through geologist and editor, to husband and father. It reveals the man whom his contemporaries respected, in all his consistence, integrity and independence, with a surprising new assessment of his tragic suicide in 1856.

Dr Michael A. Taylor FLS is Principal Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology in National Museums Scotland, which holds most of Miller's fossil collection. Lead curator for the Miller bicentenary exhibition in Edinburgh in 2002, he has published extensively on Miller, including introductions for two reprints of Miller's books. He specialises in extinct marine reptiles and in the history of vertebrate palaeontology and museums, and is an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Department of Museum Studies of the University of Leicester and Member of the International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences.