Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded

£7.99

In August 1833 the most cataclysmic eruption in modern recorded history occurred on the island of Krakatoa off the west tip of Java. The island was destroyed, almost 40,000 people were killed and shock waves were felt around the world.

Simon Winchester's brilliant chronicle conveys not just the science of this iconic event, but it's drama, its characters and its extraordinary political and social consequences.
He tells the story of the unrecognised genius who beat Darwin to the discovery of evolution; of Samuel Morse, his code and how rubber allowed the world to talk; of Alfred Wegener, the crackpot German explorer and father of geology.

In breathtaking detail Winchester describes how one island and its inhabitants were blasted out of existence and how colonial society was turned upside down in a cataclysm whose echoes are still felt to this day.