Locked down by Covid in the spring of 2020, I needed a major project to occupy my time. Long since freed from the need to write papers of the sort that would appeal to politically-correct editors of academic journals in the soi-disant social ‘sciences’, and anxious to attempt a rehabilitation of a much neglected field of study – that of regional geography – I set to work. Types of Landscape in Great Britain is the product.
I knew from the start that might be little demand for such a book. Though television channels are full of programmes about the country’s coasts, lakes and hills, and journeys through it, especially on foot or by rail, and though there has been much grumbling about the changes that have occurred in recent decades in the British scene, no substantial, single-authored regional geography has been published since the 1930s! Once, the topic would have been taught in every secondary school and most universities, but scholarly interest in the genre faded in the middle of last century. Could it be revived in a new, relevant and academically-respectable form, I asked myself?
Initially, I had not considered publication; it was a personal project, an experiment. As it gradually appeared, however, on my computer monitor, I wondered whether there might be others who would be pleased to read it. Of course, no major publishing house was likely to entertain it – there being no mass, academic market for such a work – so I turned to alternative outlets. The Self-Publishing Partnership could not have been a happier choice. Douglas Walker and his staff were welcoming and helpful from the start. A single phone call was all that was required to ‘set the ball rolling’. They listened carefully to what I hoped to achieve, gave clear and prompt answers to the questions I asked, and completed each stage of the editorial process quickly. It has been a delight to work with them. I now have a simple, elegant volume in my hand.
Read more about ‘Types of Landscape in Great Britain’ here
