How much do we really know about the place we call ‘home’? In this sweeping, timely book, Nicholas Crane tells the story of Britain.
Over the course of 12,000 years of continuous human occupation, the British landscape has been transformed form a European peninsula of glacier and tundra to an island of glittering cities and exquisite countryside.
In this geographical journey through time, we discover the ancient relationship between people and place and the deep-rooted tensions between town and countryside. From tsunamis to Roman debacles, from henge to high-rise and hamlet to metropolis, this is a book about change and adaptation. As Britain lurches towards a more sustainable future, it is the story of our age.
Over the course of 12,000 years of continuous human occupation, the British landscape has been transformed form a European peninsula of glacier and tundra to an island of glittering cities and exquisite countryside.
In this geographical journey through time, we discover the ancient relationship between people and place and the deep-rooted tensions between town and countryside. From tsunamis to Roman debacles, from henge to high-rise and hamlet to metropolis, this is a book about change and adaptation. As Britain lurches towards a more sustainable future, it is the story of our age.
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Reviews
'A definitive, encyclopaedic read and an evocative paean to the evolution of our scenery by the vastly knowledgeable BBC presenter, Nick Crane. A revealing glimpse of the Britain that once was and how we made it the place it is today'
'A richly textured, thoughtful examination'
'This is a magnificent, epic work by a national treasure . . . Nothing escapes his eye . . . and the sweep of history, brought to life in superb prose, is oddly moving. A tour de force'
'The book I want most for Christmas is the satisfyingly hefty The Making of the British Landscape by the ever reliable Nicholas Crane'
'Ambitious, magnificent . . . Crane is excellent at describing climate, geology and shifting shorelines, but is at his best when plaiting together earth-shaping events with humankind and civilisation'
'Crane provides a masterful account of how landscapes were settled and shaped'
'Superb chronicle of the physical characteristics of Europe's largest island'
'This is his greatest work for those curious to understand the geographical layers that have shaped Great Britain. From diminishing ice to the peak of our London urban Shard, Crane has captured the chronology of change of our landscapes, full of facts, imagination and archaeology'
'Nicholas Crane's sweeping The Making of the British Landscape shows how fragile are the views we love best, and how critical it is to guard them'
This planet is 4.5 billion years old, but it's sobering to realise how recently the world as we know it came into being. Only 10,000 years ago, these islands were joined to Europe and much of the North Sea was covered by the Dogger Hills. This epic book charts these incredible changes.
Well structure...This is prose of the highest order
'The Making of the British Landscape by Nicholas Crane does exactly what it says on the tin, providing a panoramic account of the past 12,000 years that is simultaneously scholarly, lyrical and moving'
Nicholas Crane is an engaging writer who handles his vast canvas with confidence and clarity...It's no suprise that Mr Crane won the Royal Geographical Society's award for popularising geography.
'This is the fascinating story of how 12,000 years of human occupation have shaped the landscape of Britain, Europe's largest island, through hunter-gathering, agriculture and industry, up to the present day'
'This is storytelling at its best. Crane's subject is the British landscape - the relationship between people and place, and how climate and population shaped our world ... written with brio (and) insight'
'Pungent, dramatic and drawing deeply on recent research . . . a geographer's love letter to the British and the land that formed them - and which they transformed over many millennia of creative labour. As such, it is dramatic, lyrical and even inspiring, and given all those rocks, remarkably readable'
It is an astonishingly imaginative effort...full of unforgettable things...What makes his book compelling is its wholeness. It is the account of something as knitted as a marriage.
'The book I'd love for Christmas is Nicholas Crane's The Making of the British Landscape'
'The book I admired most was Nicholas Crane's The Making of the British Landscape as panoramic as it is revelatory'
It is clear throughout this story that Crane cares for the British landscape's future as well as its past, and wants us to care too.
'A book I absolutely loved'
I'm just starting to read Nicholas Crane's epic tome The Making of the British Landscape and I'm enthralled
Nicholas Crane's sweeping history encourages such a long view...He displays an impressive mastery of the details of countless archaelogical excavations that join up the fragments from which Britain's earliest story must be deduced.
Crane cleverly integrates environmental evidence and climate change throughout.
'Crane's book earns its place in the pantheon and it will hopefully inspire a passion for our landscapes in a new generation of readers'