Life at the Extremes by Frances Ashcroft, HarperCollins, £17.99, ISBN 0002559463
AMONG the inhabitants of Terry Pratchett’s fantasy Discworld are lithified trolls. These silica-based characters are in the habit of referring to their human companions as “bags of mostly water”. Pratchett’s description, as well as nicely summing up our physical composition, reminds us that no matter how tough and resilient we like to think we are, we would undoubtedly appear hopelessly delicate to a life form made of sterner stuff.
This was also was my impression after reading the introductory pages of Frances Ashcroft’s charming Life at the Extremes. She…
