It is as a stand-up comedian that Connolly is best known. His observational comedy is idiosyncratic and often off-the-cuff. He talks about himself, who he is, where he's been, what he thinks and how he reacts to the world around him. He has outraged audiences, critics and, of course, the media with his free use of the word "fuck". He has used masturbation, blasphemy, defecation, flatulence, sex, his father's illness and his aunts' cruelty to entertain. By exploring these subjects with humour, Connolly has done much to strip away the taboos surrounding them. Yet he does not tell jokes in the conventional way.

Earth Time
Exploring the Deep Past from Victorian England to the Grand Canyon
by Douglas Palmer

The dramatic history of planet Earth and the rocky road to understanding the past
* A probing account of the history of the earth and an introduction to the many eccentric characters that have attempted to understand its origins.
* Full of fascinating anecdotes about 19th century explorers and natural philosophers who first carved up Earth's history just as others were carving up the globe.
* Unravels the fascinating history of rock strata and the implications they have had on accepted theories on the Earth's life.
* Considers the future of the earth, and what a repeat of some of the catastrophic events of the earth's past, such as major earthquakes and asteroid collisions, could mean for life today.