The centrepiece of this book is the autobiographical memoir written by the celebrated Scottish geologist, writer and newspaper editor Hugh Miller from 1829 to 1830. It is, by any standards, a remarkable document from a remarkable man. Vivid and, for its time, unusually informative, it offers a rare insight into the life and thinking of a figure whose violent progress through school in Cromarty and stormy apprenticeship as a stonemason inspired him to seek refuge in the world of letters.