England's Landscape: The West

What does a series of books on England’s landscapes have to do with birds? On the face of it, not much. Yet how can we understand our birdlife if we don’t appreciate the places where birds live?

So this series of eight volumes, produced in association with English Heritage, is welcome. Having just moved from London to Somerset, I was particularly interested in The West. However, on picking up this weighty book I was puzzled to find that the only way to discover the boundaries of this region is by close study of a map which contains no reference to county boundaries and does not even show landscape features.

Another problem is the multiplicity of contributors – nine in this volume alone – which gives rise to bizarre repetitions. Having been covered extensively in an earlier chapter, the Somerset Levels appear again in a brief entry towards the end of the book, written as if it was their first appearance.

These quibbles aside, the book is packed with information covering a broad range of subjects from history to geology, politics to industry – even fossils. I could have done with more about the natural history, but then I’m biased.

Overall, then, England’s Landscape: The West is a bit of a mixed bag, and at a significant £35 for each volume you may not be collecting the set. However, it is worth investing in the one that covers your region.

The Welsh and Scots will, I suppose, just have to wait.

First published in Birdwatch 173: 52 (November 2006). 

Tech spec

• England's Landscape: The West by Barry Cunliffe (Collins, in association with English Heritage, London, 2006).;
• 256 pages, illustrated throughout with colour paintings.
• ISBN 0007155735. Hbk, £35.