How to Read the Landscape ─ A Crash Course in Interpreting the Great Outdoors

Interest in the environment has never been greater, yet how much do each of us understand and engage with it? Geography and geology feel like forgotten schoolroom lessons, and most of us admire the landscape without guessing at the many visible clues to the 4 billion years of history that formed it.

How to Read the Landscape will change the way you look at the world, by presenting a visual vocabulary with which to understand the land beneath your feet. The book explains the principles of geography, geology, and geomorphology, and shows how a basic understanding of geological timescale, plate tectonics, and landforms can help you to “read” the great outdoors. It then presents a series of classic land forms and features, and uses beautiful progressive artworks to demonstrate the processes by which they were created. The reader will learn to interpret the distinctive shapes of cliffs and coastlines, mountains and hills, valleys and plateaus; to find clues to weather and water erosion; to read rock strata, minerals, and fossils; and to both use and draw maps. A primer and a field guide, How to Read the Landscape will enliven and inform your every future journey, from a hike in the countryside to a flight over the Rockies.

Most recently working as the editor of the magazine Beautiful Britain, Rob Yarham is a freelance writer and editor, specialising in articles and books on wildlife, conservation, and the landscape and history of Britain.