From its earliest origins to the present day, the author describes the endlessly changing character of Britain's countryside. Exploring the natural and man-made features of the land - fields, highways, hedgerows, fens, marshes, rivers, heaths, coasts, wood and wood pastures - Rackham shows how they have developed over the centuries. In doing so he covers a wealth of related subjects to provide an account of the sometimes subtle and often radical ways in which people, fauna, flora, soils and other physical conditions have influenced the shaping of the countryside.