PREACHING BEYOND THE CHOIR

It is an understandable human trait; most of us fall into the trap of thinking that everyone must share at least a slice of our passion for our favourite subject. For one of us it took 10 years of retirement after 38 years in a geological bubble -working and mixing with those who loved rocks or whose work depended on rock knowledge - to appreciate that this was demonstrably not the case.

Ten years of eclectic and often candid contacts rammed homethe fact that the vast majority of people really don't understand what geology is about and why it matters. That is not to say they are not curious about their landscape and their past. They are but they don’t have our voracious appetite for it. The feedback from that informal but extensive sampling was that despite our best efforts a great deal of the content we professional and amateur geologists turn out in the name of outreach is still too full of geology, from broad concepts to technical language, and is beyond them.

In 2021 an opportunity arose to do something about it. We produced a book called Northumberland Rocks to celebrate 50 years of a Northern England wildlife charity. That was followed by two others covering the counties of Cumbria and Durham in 2022 and 2023. They all follow the same format; image heavy, text light coffee table books that tell the story of the landscape through 50 “rocky” places in each county. About 300 words and two large photos connect the rocks to wildlife, history, the local economy and culture. The books are written for the public at large and not for geologists, although it is gratifying to see they are being bought and positively reviewed by both local and technical experts.

The books have sold well: around 9,000 copies in 34 monthsand the feedback has been positive, especially about their accessibility. That was reassuring as the books have public accessibility as their prime goal. Short, simple and visually appealing...and ensuring rocks were leavened with topics that, rightly or wrongly, excite public interest more than geology does.

But always we have tried to get the science right and, in the words of W B Yeats, ‘think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people’.