IN PERSON - Living on Earth by Peter Godfrey-Smith

Please join us for The More-Than-Human Book Club’s monthly discussion group.

For October we will be reading Living on Earth: Life, Consciousness And The Making Of The Natural World by Peter Godfrey-Smith.

We will meet in person in the Barbican library from 2.15pm and the discussion will run from 2.30-3.30pm with an option of continuing more informal discussions over tea in the cafe afterwards.

On the day, after introductions, we will go around the group and each share our thoughts about the book in turn before engaging in a gently-guided group discussion.

Please don’t feel any pressure to finish the book before attending, and please know you’re very welcome to attend however little you’ve had a chance to read.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

More About the Book:

The eagerly anticipated conclusion to Peter Godfrey-Smith’s three-part exploration of the origins of intelligence on Earth, which began with the bestselling Other Minds in 2018 and continued with Metazoa in 2020 (although please note he makes it very clear that you don't need to have read the previous two books in order to enjoy and understand this book).

Peter Godfrey-Smith, the scuba-diving philosopher, examined the evolution of sentience in Other Minds. In Metazoa he asked how that consciousness shaped and was shaped by animal bodies. Now, in Living on Earth, he takes that line of questioning a step further, asking, how has life shaped and been shaped by our planet?

He visits the largest living stromatolite fields, examples of how cyanobacteria began belching oxygen into the atmosphere as they converted carbon dioxide and water into living matter using the sun's light. The extraordinary increase in oxygen in the atmosphere resulted in an explosion in the diversity of life. And so began a riotous tangle of coevolution between plants and animals, as each changed the environment around them allowing others to utilise these new ecosystems and thus new species to evolve. From cyanobacteria, through algae on to ferns or trees or grasses, and from protists , through invertebrates and fish through the dinosaurs and on to birds and mammals – our planet has seen an explosion of life forms, all reacting to their environment and all creating new environments that allow other life to evolve.

Living on Earth is published by William Collins on 15th August 2024 and is available in hardback, e-book or audiobook.

Reviews of Living on Earth:

"An exquisite account of intelligence across species … Living on Earth is consistently rewarding, packed with insights and invitations to reflect, and blessed with some exquisite writing" The Guardian

"Clever, compassionate and often deeply moving … An excellent finale to an ambitious trilogy exploring the evolution of intelligence” New Scientist

"Wide-ranging … [and] dynamic … An extraordinary journey” The Observer

"Godfrey-Smith is overflowing with new ways of looking at old issues, and it is always a pleasure to be introduced to them” Literary Review

"A hugely important book … Sweeping, careful, and courageous … Godfrey-Smith writes with grace, humility, and wisdom”
Anil Seth, director of the Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex and author of Being You: A New Science of Consciousness

"Only Peter Godfrey-Smith could write this book. It offers a vast, kaleidoscopic, and immensely thought-provoking overview of the development of life on Earth”
Sean Carroll, professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of Quanta and Fields

More about The Book Club:

The More-Than-Human Book Club is a group that meets monthly both at The Barbican Library and elsewhere to talk about more-than-human experiences, wildness and nature writing in its broadest sense. Each month we choose a different book, film, artwork, poem or essay to discuss, including a mix of classic and contemporary works. We hope the space will provide a place of sanctuary, exploration and discovery, and be a place where community and connections are forged and inspiration is found. If you are interested in nature, literature, wildness, ecology, science, art and/or ideas, please do join us. We would love to have you there!

Its co-founders, hosts and curators are:

Olivia “Lilly” Edward. Lilly is a writer who specialises in nature and the environment. For the last few years she has been running nature writing events and panel discussions at the Royal Geographical Society, and she continues to review and write regularly for their magazine. She volunteers as a ranger in Richmond Park and is endlessly enthralled by the natural world and its web of ecological relationships.

Rhona Eve Clews. Rhona is an Artist, Healer and Ecologist. Rhona has a background in Psychology and Photography, holds an MFA in Fine Art from Slade School of Fine Art and teaches independently and for Slade Summer School. Drawing upon her past of growing up a hippie she works across writing, photography, performance and filmmaking, aiming to expand them into somatic, eco-feminist practices and contribute to wider ecological ethics of care.

Any questions please email us at [email protected]

Host or Publisher Olivia Edward & Rhona Eve Clews