Anna Pavord is perhaps best known for The Tulip, her monumental, bestselling history of that enigmatic flower. This is a celebration of the English landscape, and relates the history of how artists, travel writers, farmers and agricultural policy advisors have responded to the landscape, its beauty, and its management and use. She has read everything from artists biographies to dry land use reports commissioned by government departments. For those with an abiding interest in the English landscape and its meaning, this is essential reading. It's a beautifully presented book with black-and-white illustrations, which I would have preferred in colour.