Best selling author of the ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, Tracy Chevalier was inspired to write her new novel ‘Remarkable Creatures’ during a visit to the Dinosaur Museum in Dorchester. Her latest novel focuses on the story of Mary Anning – a fossil hunter from Lyme Regis who lived in the early part of the 19th century. She was very much a woman in a man’s world, but despite this discovered the first complete skeleton of an ichthyosaur at the age of 11.

It was when Tracy Chevalier took her son to the Dinosaur Museum that she first learnt about Mary Anning’s extraordinary life and was inspired to write her latest novel. Mary Anning lived with her family in Lyme Regis and was the daughter of a carpenter. She developed an incredible talent for discovering important fossils and became an expert on them. Today she revisited the Museum to launch of her new book. ‘Remarkable Creatures’ has just been published and signed copies are available from the Dinosaur Museum’s shop and online store. Click here to obtain a signed copy of the book!