The Making Of The British Landscape
From the Ice Age to the Present
By Nicholas Crane
The history of 12,000 years of the British landscape, from the Ice Age to the twenty-first century, by prizewinning author Nicholas Crane, co-presenter of COAST.
How much do we really know about the place we call 'home'? In this sweeping, timely book, Nicholas Crane tells the story of Britain.
The British landscape has been continuously occupied by humans for 12,000 years, from the end of the Ice Age till the twenty-first century. It has been transformed from a European peninsula of glacier and tundra to an island of glittering cities and exquisite countryside.
In this geographical journey through time, we discover the ancient relationship between people and place and the deep-rooted tensions between town and countryside.
The twin drivers of landscape change - climate and population - have arguably wielded as much influence on our habitat as monarchs and politics. From tsunamis and farming to Roman debacles and industrial cataclysms, from henge to high-rise and hamlet to metropolis, this is a book about change and adaptation. As Britain lurches from an exploitative past towards a more sustainable future, this is the story of our age.
Nicholas Crane is an author, geographer, cartographic expert and recipient of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society's Mungo Park Medal in recognition of outstanding contributions to geographical knowledge, and of the Royal Geographical Society's Ness Award for popularising geography and the understanding of Britain. He has presented several acclaimed series on BBC2, among them Map Men, Town, Britannia and Coast. He was elected President of the Royal Geographical Society in 2015.
Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nicholascrane.
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- Publication date:
05 Oct 2017
- Page count:
'Ambitious, magnificent . . . Crane is excellent at describing climate, geology and shifting shorelines, but is at his best when plaiting together earth-shaping events with humankind and civilisation' — Andrea Wulf, Guardian
'Pungent, dramatic and drawing deeply on recent research . . . a geographer's love letter to the British and the land that formed them - and which they transformed over many millennia of creative labour. As such, it is dramatic, lyrical and even inspiring, and given all those rocks, remarkably readable' — James McConnachie, SUNDAY TIMES
'This is a magnificent, epic work by a national treasure . . . Nothing escapes his eye . . . and the sweep of history, brought to life in superb prose, is oddly moving. A tour de force' — Bel Mooney, DAILY MAIL
'Crane's book earns its place in the pantheon and it will hopefully inspire a passion for our landscapes in a new generation of readers' — Richard J Mayhew, LITERARY REVIEW
'The book I admired most was Nicholas Crane's The Making of the British Landscape as panoramic as it is revelatory' — Tom Holland, OBSERVER Books of the Year
'The book I want most for Christmas is the satisfyingly hefty The Making of the British Landscape by the ever reliable Nicholas Crane' — Bill Bryson, OBSERVER Books of the Year
'Crane provides a masterful account of how landscapes were settled and shaped' — THE NATIONAL
'A definitive, encyclopaedic read and an evocative paean to the evolution of our scenery by the vastly knowledgeable BBC presenter, Nick Crane. A revealing glimpse of the Britain that once was and how we made it the place it is today' — BBC COUNTRYFILE
'Nicholas Crane's sweeping The Making of the British Landscape shows how fragile are the views we love best, and how critical it is to guard them' — Simon Jenkins, EVENING STANDARD
'This is his greatest work for those curious to understand the geographical layers that have shaped Great Britain. From diminishing ice to the peak of our London urban Shard, Crane has captured the chronology of change of our landscapes, full of facts, imagination and archaeology' — Nigel Winser, GEOGRAPHICAL