Dr Allan Chapman is a historian of science at Oxford University, with special interests in the history of astronomy and of medicine and the relationship between science and Christianity. As well as University teaching, he lectures widely, has written a dozen books and numerous academic articles, and written and presented two TV series, Gods in the Sky and Great Scientists, besides taking part in many other history of science TVdocumentaries and in The Sky at Night with Sir Patrick Moore. He has received honorary doctorates and awards from the Universities of Central Lancashire, Salford, and Lancaster, and in 2015 was presented with the Jackson-Gwilt Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society. Among his books are Slaying the Dragons. Destroying Myths in the History of Science and Faith (Lion Hudson, 2013), Stargazers: Copernicus, Galileo, the Telescope,and the Church. The Astronomical Renaissance, 1500-1700 (Lion, 2014), and Physicians, Plagues, and Progress. The History of Western Medicine from Antiquity to Antibiotics (Lion, 2016). He is also the author of thescientific biographies England's Leonardo. Robert Hooke and the Seventeenth-Century Scientific Revolution (Institute of Physics, 2005), Mary Somerville and the World of Science (Canopus, 2004; Springer, 2015), and The Victorian Amateur Astronomer. Independent Astronomical Research in Britain, 1820-1920 (Wiley-Praxis, 1998; revised edn. Gracewing, 2017).

‘Allan Chapman has written an irresistible biography of one of Oxford’s most colourful characters, the pioneer and populariser of paleontology William Buckland. A gifted and amusing speaker, Buckland captivated large audiences with lost worlds of prehistoric creatures, reconstructed from fossil fragments. An Anglican priest, Canon of Oxford’s cathedral and eventually, in 1845, Dean of Westminster, Buckland resolutely applied his scientific knowledge in the service of Christian philanthropy. Dr Chapman shares with his subject a proven ability to mix instruction with entertainment, but never to the detriment of two serious aims: to rescue Buckland from caricatures that have allowed his early writings on the scope of Noah’s flood to obscure his many durable contributions to geology and, secondly, to show that, as one standing in a long line of clerical scientists, he saw the earth sciences as magnifying, not threatening, the grandeur of God’s creation.’

Dr Allan Chapman is a historian of science at Oxford University, with special interests in the history of astronomy and of medicine and the relationship between science and Christianity. As well as University teaching, he lectures widely, has written a dozen books and numerous academic articles, and written and presented two TV series, Gods in the Sky and Great Scientists, besides taking part in many other history of science TVdocumentaries and in The Sky at Night with Sir Patrick Moore. He has received honorary doctorates and awards from the Universities of Central Lancashire, Salford, and Lancaster, and in 2015 was presented with the Jackson-Gwilt Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society. Among his books are Slaying the Dragons. Destroying Myths in the History of Science and Faith (Lion Hudson, 2013), Stargazers: Copernicus, Galileo, the Telescope,and the Church. The Astronomical Renaissance, 1500-1700 (Lion, 2014), and Physicians, Plagues, and Progress. The History of Western Medicine from Antiquity to Antibiotics (Lion, 2016). He is also the author of thescientific biographies England's Leonardo. Robert Hooke and the Seventeenth-Century Scientific Revolution (Institute of Physics, 2005), Mary Somerville and the World of Science (Canopus, 2004; Springer, 2015), and The Victorian Amateur Astronomer. Independent Astronomical Research in Britain, 1820-1920 (Wiley-Praxis, 1998; revised edn. Gracewing, 2017).

‘Allan Chapman has written an irresistible biography of one of Oxford’s most colourful characters, the pioneer and populariser of paleontology William Buckland. A gifted and amusing speaker, Buckland captivated large audiences with lost worlds of prehistoric creatures, reconstructed from fossil fragments. An Anglican priest, Canon of Oxford’s cathedral and eventually, in 1845, Dean of Westminster, Buckland resolutely applied his scientific knowledge in the service of Christian philanthropy. Dr Chapman shares with his subject a proven ability to mix instruction with entertainment, but never to the detriment of two serious aims: to rescue Buckland from caricatures that have allowed his early writings on the scope of Noah’s flood to obscure his many durable contributions to geology and, secondly, to show that, as one standing in a long line of clerical scientists, he saw the earth sciences as magnifying, not threatening, the grandeur of God’s creation.’

Dr Allan Chapman is a historian of science at Oxford University, with special interests in the history of astronomy and of medicine and the relationship between science and Christianity. As well as University teaching, he lectures widely, has written a dozen books and numerous academic articles, and written and presented two TV series, Gods in the Sky and Great Scientists, besides taking part in many other history of science TVdocumentaries and in The Sky at Night with Sir Patrick Moore. He has received honorary doctorates and awards from the Universities of Central Lancashire, Salford, and Lancaster, and in 2015 was presented with the Jackson-Gwilt Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society. Among his books are Slaying the Dragons. Destroying Myths in the History of Science and Faith (Lion Hudson, 2013), Stargazers: Copernicus, Galileo, the Telescope,and the Church. The Astronomical Renaissance, 1500-1700 (Lion, 2014), and Physicians, Plagues, and Progress. The History of Western Medicine from Antiquity to Antibiotics (Lion, 2016). He is also the author of thescientific biographies England's Leonardo. Robert Hooke and the Seventeenth-Century Scientific Revolution (Institute of Physics, 2005), Mary Somerville and the World of Science (Canopus, 2004; Springer, 2015), and The Victorian Amateur Astronomer. Independent Astronomical Research in Britain, 1820-1920 (Wiley-Praxis, 1998; revised edn. Gracewing, 2017).

‘Allan Chapman has written an irresistible biography of one of Oxford’s most colourful characters, the pioneer and populariser of paleontology William Buckland. A gifted and amusing speaker, Buckland captivated large audiences with lost worlds of prehistoric creatures, reconstructed from fossil fragments. An Anglican priest, Canon of Oxford’s cathedral and eventually, in 1845, Dean of Westminster, Buckland resolutely applied his scientific knowledge in the service of Christian philanthropy. Dr Chapman shares with his subject a proven ability to mix instruction with entertainment, but never to the detriment of two serious aims: to rescue Buckland from caricatures that have allowed his early writings on the scope of Noah’s flood to obscure his many durable contributions to geology and, secondly, to show that, as one standing in a long line of clerical scientists, he saw the earth sciences as magnifying, not threatening, the grandeur of God’s creation.’