Rare text to rewrite record books at sale CITY FINAL Edition

• Published in: Evening News
• Main Author: Carvalho, Melanie
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Edinburgh (UK) National World 01.05.2003
• ISSN: 0307-5761

Experts say [James Hutton], who lived and worked on St John's Hill, is one of Scottish history's hidden geniuses. Dr Stuart Monro, scientific director at Dynamic Earth, said: "He is one of the grossly understated heroes of Scottish science. Before Hutton, people thought the world began 6000 years ago. By looking at the rocks at Sicca Point, just south of Dunbar, he worked out the Earth was a lot older. Without Hutton, Charles Darwin couldn't have come up with the theory of evolution." Darwin, who studied at Edinburgh University, was believed to have been greatly influenced by Hutton, who was one of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment along with David Hume and Adam Smith and is considered the founder of modern geology. He is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard. This year's patron of the book fair is Jamie Byng of Canongate Books, publisher of 2002 Booker prize winner The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Lady [Mary Davidson] said: "It is highly appropriate that Jamie Byng should be with us, as our Scottish books always represent the whole history of Edinburgh publishing."