From the wild reaches of Massachusetts, the dangers of natural catastrophe can seem very far away - especially when he is driving one of his two tractors, or arranging the delivery of some geese. But Winchester is away from his rural retreat often enough to know he needs to keep working; that a voice of reason in the care and upkeep of the planet cannot go silent. A result of these books is his unfailing belief in the moral imperative of conservation, and the need to look for alternative sources of energy "This planet is all we have," he says. "If you drive north from Bombay," he recalls, "suddenly the road tips upward, and in that movement, from when you are sitting in the car to be pressed against the back seat, you realise you have crossed from India into Eurasia - and that is very disturbing." Landscape, since then, has been central to many of his books, from American Heartbeat to Korea: a Walk through the Land of Miracles. He joined The Guardian in 1970, and spent nine years as a foreign correspondent, in Northern Ireland, Washington DC, and India.
It was in the final destination that he had his epiphany about the importance of geology. For many readers, the beginning of recorded time for him began seven years ago, when his book The Surgeon of Crowthorne - about the eccentric origins of the Oxford English Dictionary - became an unlikely bestseller But he had by then spent three decades as a journalist. The same convulsion of religious fervour and finger-pointing happened after San Francisco, too. Around the world the view was largely that this was the act of a cruel, almighty creator. Winchester will most likely be called upon to defend the scientific reasons behind this quake when he appears on talk shows to discuss his book. " If I can get across two points: that God did not cause the San Francisco earthquake, and that we need to prepare for a new one," he says, " I'll be happy." He did not expect ever to have such a large platform to influence thought.
"The notion that 100 million Americans think that the earth is less than 10,000 years old and was created in seven days by an all-powerful being is sort of mind-boggling." In the wake of Katrina, the director of Repent America, Michael Marcavage, said that "this act of God destroyed a wicked city". "I am an unapologetic believer in evolution and Darwinian theory," he says. For nowhere does Winchester make room for so-called "intelligent design" or a creative hand. "If by writing a book like this I could increase awareness of geology and the reasons behind earthquakes and help preparedness," Winchester says, "I'd be very happy." It is a testament to the climate of rising fundamentalism in America that such a book might be seen as "political". "The San Francisco earthquake was not caused by God," he says unequivocally, "but forces we understand - and understand now better thanks to it." He buries his account of that fateful day some 250 pages into the book, choosing to explain how the quake occurred, why it happened and, most appropriately, warn people of its coming inevitability.