'A masterpiece' - Daily Mail 'A brilliant gift for anyone who loves the countryside' - Independent 'Britain's finest nature writer' - Telegraph 'Assured and expert countryside writing' -TLS 'His immense, patient powers of observation - along with a flair for the anthropomorphic - mean he is able to offer a portrait of animal life that's rare in its colour and drama.' - Observer 'That John Lewis-Stempel is one of the best nature writers of his generation is undisputed.' - Country Life ----- In a stunning package, with specially commissioned illustration and a map, England: A Natural History is the definitive volume on the English landscape and the capstone of John Lewis-Stempel's nature writing. The English countryside is iconic: a series of distinctive habitats that unite to create a landscape that is unique for the rich diversity of our flora and fauna. In England, his most magisterial book to date, John Lewis-Stempel explores each in turn, taking us from coast to moor, from downs to field, from the park to the village to create a vivid living portrait of our natural history. In his trademark lyrical prose, Lewis-Stempel reveals the hidden workings of each habitat: the clear waters and dragonflies, the bluebells, badgers and stag beetles, wild thyme, granite cliffs, rock pools and sandy beaches, red deer standing at ancient oaks, the wayside flowers of the lane, hedgehogs and hares, and snow on the high peak. Each landscape - be it calm green or wild moor, plunging cliff or flatland fen - has shaped our idea of ourselves, our sense of what it is to be in England.