In this intriguing and provocative book, Clive Finlayson gives a new view of human evolution which draws on ecology to interpret the fossil evidence. It is an account of a single human species, split into groups that tackled the challenge of new landscapes as they spread across the world. Without water, we quickly die; and it was the need to reach water, he argues, that shaped our bodies, lengthening our limbs and driving the development of our brains.