Our Moon

A cultural and scientific history of the Moon from prehistoric archaeology to the most recent technological and scientific research today.

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Longlisted for the National Book Award 2024
'Passionate and absorbing'
SUNDAY TIMES

'I learned more about the Moon by reading this book than after a lifetime of study'
CHRIS HADFIELD, author of An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

'Superb: as much a feat of imagination as it is a work of globe-trotting scholarship'
TELEGRAPH

'Boyle's writing shines, shifting through time and space, science and sentiment; a luminous read'
REBECCA WRAGG SYKES, author of Kindred

'You will never look at the Moon the same way again . . . fascinating'
NEW STATESMAN

'A riveting feat of science writing'
ED YONG, author of An Immense World

'Engrossing'
INDEPENDENT

Every living being throughout history, across time and geography, has gazed up at the same moon.

From the first prehistoric life that crawled onto land guided by the power of the tides, to the division of time into months and seasons for the first humans, the moon has driven the expansion and development of our world.

It has inspired scientific discovery and culture from the ancient astronomers to the scientific revolution of Copernicus and Galileo, from the 1969 Apollo landings to writers and artists, and stirred an inexhaustible desire to know where we come from and how we got here.

And as astronauts around the world prepare to return to the Moon - opening up new frontiers of discovery, profit and politics - Our Moon tells the dazzling story of how the Moon has shaped life as we know it, fuelled dramatic change across the globe and could be the key to humanity's future.