When did the first people arrive here? What did they look like? How did they survive? Who were the Neanderthals? The author takes us back to when it was so tropical we lived alongside hippos, elephants and sabre-toothed tigers or to times so cold we hunted reindeer and mammoth, and to others even colder when we were forced to flee a wall of ice.

Chris Stringer's Homo Britannicus is the epic history of life in Britain, from man's very first footsteps through to the present day.

When did the first people arrive here? What did they look like? How did they survive? Who were the Neanderthals?

Chris Stringer takes us back to when it was so tropical we lived here alongside hippos, elephants and sabre-toothed tigers or to times so cold we hunted reindeer and mammoth, and to others even colder when we were forced to flee a wall of ice. Here is the incredible truth about our ancestors' journey over millennia - and a glimpse of the future to see how it might continue.

'A beautiful book on a fascinating subject, written by a world authority'
Richard Dawkins

'Superlative ... Pure stimulation from beginning to end'
Bill Bryson

'Every chapter contains something new, and throws up a fresh location that deserves to become famous'
Sunday Times

'This important and eminently readable book pulls together all the best scientific work on the first humans to inhabit Britain'
Tony Robinson

Chris Stringer is Britain's foremost expert on human origins and works in the Department of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum. He also currently directs the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project, aimed at reconstructing the first detailed history of how and when Britain was occupied by early humans. His previous books include African Exodus: The Origins of Modern Humanity, The Complete World of Human Evolution and most recently, Homo Britannicus, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book of the Year in 2007.