About the Author

Dr Oliver Rackham was a botanist and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. An acknowledged authority on the British countryside, especially trees, woodlands and pasture. THE HISTORY OF THE COUNTRYSIDE won the 1986 Angel Literary Award, the Sir Peter Kent Conservation Prize and the Natural World Book of the Year Award.

Reviews

A classic of scholarship and imagination...A monumental work, but it is written with humanity, dignity, concern and a great deal of humour - TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTAs quirky and rewarding as the English countryside itself ... it is full of answers to questions that others have not had the wit to ask - ECONOMISTOne thing is certain: no one would be wise to write further on our natural history, or to make films about it, without thinking very hard about what is contained in these authoritative pages - COUNTRY LIFE