GAVIN Pretor-Pinney is founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, which means he stops just short of worshipping them. His book is a celebration of what he calls 鈥渘ature鈥檚 poetry鈥�, but it is also full of fascinating science. Read it if you want to know your cirrostratus from your stratocumulus, and why clouds can tell you a lot about what鈥檚 going on in the atmosphere. You鈥檒l also discover how in 1959 Lt-Col William Rankin taught us much about storm clouds when he parachuted through one, surviving lightning, huge turbulence and giant hailstones.
The Cloudspotter鈥檚 Guide
Sceptre/Perigee
