British Isles: A Natural History [Hardcover]

I have to disagree with the other review. I thoroughly enjoyed the programme and the book is an added bonus, taking the story on further and written in a clear, informative and engaging way. I found the subject fascinating and wanted to read more about it but I don't want to read an academic tome on geology. This book is a perfect compromise of education and enjoyment. The illustrations are also wonderful and add extra interest - it's a book that may make its way under the Christmas tree in a few of my friends' houses!

A difficult book to review, and for all the wrong reasons. Firstly, the subject matter is fascinating and there is much to commend the book in terms of the quality of its (profuse) illustration. The television series was excellent, its photography and animation simply stunning at times. However, the book does not live up to the quality and scale of the TV production. It offers a safe, general discussion of the emergence of the British Isles as a geographical fact, then goes on to offer a compressed potted history of the first settlers, emergence of a rural society, and the process of urbanisation and social change which has helped shape the landscape.

It's all very interesting, and the book does provide quite an engaging narrative. But the words seem sparse, lost amidst the illustrations. As an introduction to the history, prehistory, and geology of the British Isles, it is, in places, too short and too simplistic. The book lacks the graphic quality of the television presentation.

Now, quite clearly Alan Titchmarsh has put his name to this volume. He seems a nice, genuine bloke, and there's no doubt he knows about gardening. If I were to buy a book on gardening, I'd probably look at something by him. But if I read a book about the geology of the British Isles, I want it written by a geologist. If I read a book about the history of the British Isles, I want it written by an historian. Simply taking a 'celebrity' and sticking his name below the title seems cheap and exploitative of the general public.

Anyone truly interested in this subject would be much better advised looking at Hoskins' "The Making of the English Landscape" (a recognised classic), or any of the excellent titles by Richard Muir - say his "Landscape Detective: Discovering a Countryside". Unfortunately, you get the impression that the BBC decided that this was a potentially boring subject, but if they could get someone as cuddly and popular as Alan, the public would stay in and watch it ... then rush out and buy the book. It's disappointing, and if you compare this publication with any of Richard Muir's books, you'll realise where value for money lies ... unless, of course, you simply want a pretty looking book. Mind you, Muir's books are well illustrated, too!

It is a nice, safe, good little introduction to the subject, and maybe it will sow the seeds of interest in a few people ... but it is just a little short of the excellence you expect from the BBC.

Alan Titchmarsh is not a professional geologist, historian, geographer, or climatologist. He's not even a professional naturalist. His area of expertise is in gardening and broadcasting - two words that can be synonymous in the right context - but it is as a communicator in which Titchmarsh excels in this book. Yes, like the excellent TV series to which it relates, the words have been written by the man himself, but the reading on which he has based his knowledge has been wide (if not terribly deep), as evinced by the bibliography at the book's end. In the introduction Titchmarsh modestly justifies his credentials by telling us that "my love of nature has always gone hand in hand with my passion for growing plants. I still have a bird book by my desk, and the fact that I refuse to use garden chemicals is due entirely to the fact that other forms of life have every bit as much right to use my garden as I do."

So Titchmarsh's book is in many ways an introduction to the subject of the natural history of the British Isles; a kind of arm around your shoulder asking you to look at the view, whilst with his other arm he points out at the landscape below to describe features of interest. There are helpful messages for those new to the study, for example telling the reader how to pronounce the word `gneiss', and also helpful messages to those of us who have studied the landscape since we were born, like what is the best grass to chew on whilst contemplating its beauty and meaning. In addition, there are many separate boxes throughout the book to explain concepts and features in more detail from rock types and plate tectonics to the freezing of the River Thames during the Little Ice Age.

Based on the TV series, the book's chapters match the episodes by adopting a forward-chronological patter. But it soon becomes apparent - such as when he talks of the different trilobites to be found in England and Scotland, but only the latter's can also be found in Newfoundland - that this is not a mere book version of the script. There is room to explain things better that were either lightly touched upon in the series, such as the causes of the Ice Age - or were not mentioned at all, for instance Milankovitch's theory on the Earth's orbit and its effect on climate. Having said that, space precludes Titchmarsh from providing a more than brief gloss on the origins of villages: here he uses unfortunate loose and misleading terminology.

It is only when we are halfway into the book that homo sapiens makes his appearance in Britain in large numbers, but the size of that largeness is relative with Titchmarsh cleverly likening the total population to the crowd at a football match. (What nature took thousands of years to achieve has been `ruined' by us in so short a time.) The seventh and final chapter looks at the future of the British landscape. Apparently it's going to be hot, cold, wet, and dry. One thing for definite is that at least it will be interesting.

This book too is interesting. It comes complete with some marvellous photographs, and suggests places to visit to experience in context the evidence of the transformations that have taken place in the British landscape. However, I do have a few gripes: Titchmarsh seems married to the imperial measuring system (but at least metric equivalents are given in brackets); and the author also seems married to the concept of Yorkshire uber Alles. In addition, he talks of the `typical' English countryside when there is no such thing, for instance when discussing the enclosure of open fields. But these are minor grumbles. This is a fine, well-written, and well-illustrated introduction to the origins of the Great British Landscape.