[Collins New Naturalist 44] • The Peak District

Lying as it does at the heart of industrial England, this area of intimate wooded dales, steep-sided gorges and windswept boggy moorland, is perhaps the most welcome of all Britain's National Parks; certainly, it is the most accessible, for within 75 miles of its border lives nearly half the population of England, and the rich variety of its scenery attracts tens of thousands of visitors yearly.

This book is the general introduction to the region for naturalists. It presents a concise account of the Peak District's geological structure and history from ancient upheavals to the effects of erosion today - of its woods and wild flowers, its mosses and fungi, birds and fishes, roads and villages and farms, its weather and its rural economy.

All this is obviously too much for one man to cover expertly, and the author, though he probably knows the geography of the Peak as thoroughly as anyone alive, has drawn freely on the help of his friends and colleagues at Nottingham University. These include notably Professor H. H. Swinnerton, the author of the successful volume on Fossils in this series, and Mr. R. H. Hall, who have provided the geological and botanical chapters respectively.

To the many thousands of ramblers who visit the Peak District at weekends, summer and winter alike, here is a book by one who has trodden all the paths before them and is able to discover for them interests hitherto unsuspected to enhance their enjoyment. At the same time it is a survey of great interest to naturalists everywhere.