Author and geologist rocks in new podcast

An author and geologist who has raised more than £36,000 with his books on the county's rocks is set to swap his pen for a microphone with a new podcast which is described as "feeling like a conversation in a pub".

- DANIEL HALL

Ian Jackson started creating a few web pages about the county's rocks in 2022 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Northumberland Wildlife Trust.

Four years on, after the unprecedented success of Northumberland Rocks (the book had to be reprinted after an initial run of 2,000 copies sold out), Ian is now the author of an illustrated five-volume series telling the stories of 250 remarkable places across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, Teesside, Cumbria and North Yorkshire.

The series even inspired Northumberland to become the first UK county to have its own County Rock (the Whin Sill) and County Fossil (crinoids).