Author(s): Adam Voiland

Photography

'"A". What begins with "A"? There is Antarctica and the Arctic, algal blooms, acid rain and the atmosphere. And aerosols altering an astronaut's view of this ancient assemblage of rock in a state adjacent to Arizona...'

Most of us have looked up at clouds and seen faces, objects and animals scudding across a clear summer sky. Astronauts see the same thing - but from above...

While working on a story about wildfires in northern Canada, NASA science writer and new father Adam Voiland found a stunning satellite image of an enormous smoke cloud, many miles across, shaped like the letter 'V'. The majesty of that image made Adam wonder: could he track down all 26 letters of the alphabet for his newborn baby son, using only satellite imagery and photographs of the Earth taken by astronauts? With the help of readers and colleagues at NASA, he started to collect images of clouds, blooms of sea plankton and dust storms that formed shapes reminiscent of all the letters from A to Z.

The result is this gorgeous photographic record of the alphabet, seen from above. At a time when Space travel is more popular than ever, and astronauts from Chris Hadfield to Tim Peake are inspiring a whole generation of young readers, this beautiful book is at once a celebration of Space, language and the natural beauty of Earth, and a gift to keep for ever.