[Penguin Lines – Celebrate 150 years of the London Underground 01] • A Good Parcel of English Soil

Richard Mabey, one of Britain's leading nature writers, looks at the relationship between city and country, and how this brings out the power of nature - part of a series of twelve books tied to the twelve lines of the London Underground.

Exploring the creation of Metro-land as a powerful symbol of the English ruralist myth, A Good Parcel of English Soil looks at how individuals become sensitized to nature in the hybrid environment of the suburbs.

Richard Mabey grew up on the Metropolitan line, without the development of which - and its precursor, the Metropolitan Railway - in the early 20th Century, Metro-land could not have come into existence in the way we know it now, and here, through his own family's history, he explores the power of nature as it occurs even on the fringes of our cities.