Ash is one of the commonest trees in the British Isles - there are nearly as many ash trees as there are people. Perhaps this is why we take them for granted. Poets write of oak, yew, elm, willow, rarely ash. No books have been written about ash trees before. Yet ash is one of the most productive[...]

Mediterranean Europe - southern Portugal and Spain, France, Italy, the Balkans, Greece and the Mediterranean islands - is often interpreted as a "Lost Eden", once verdant and fertile, then progressively degraded and desertified by human mismanagement and the ignorance and folly of successive civiliz[...]

In this richly illustrated volume, eight distinguished historians explore the facts, themes, and epochs of the history of the Great Sea: the physical setting; the rivalry between Carthaginians, Greeks, and Etruscans for control of sea routes; unification under Rome and the subsequent break up into W[...]