England’s landscape is iconic – a tapestry of distinctive habitats that together make up a country unique for its rich diversity of flora and fauna. Concentrating on twelve habitats, John Lewis-Stempel leads us from estuary to park, chalk downland to woodland , river to field, village to moor, lake to heath, fen to coastal cliffs, in a book that is unquestionably his magnum opus.
Referencing beloved great writers in whose footsteps he treads – Gilbert White, John Clare, W. H. Hudson, Richard Jefferies, Edward Thomas – and combining breathtakingly beautiful prose with detailed wildlife observation, botanical fact and ancient folklore, Lewis-Stempel immerses himself in each place, discovering their singular atmosphere, the play of the seasons; the feel of the wind in midwinter; the sounds of daybreak; how twilight settles. Each one – whether managed park or wild moor, plunging cliff or man-made Broads – has also shaped human life, forming our idea of ourselves and our sense of what ‘England’ means.
England: A Natural History is the definitive volume on the English landscape, and the capstone of John Lewis-Stempel’s nature writing.
