Signed by the author”This fascinating spotter`s guide to Britain`s historical landscape - what to see and how to decipher it - is rammed with intriguing nuggets.” Sunday Times”A definitive classic field guide... Its scope is as magnificent as our countryside itself.” BBC Countryfile Magazine ”This book is perfect for anyone who`s travelled through the countryside, scratched their head, and thought, `what on earth is that thing?` ” Tony RobinsonFor the times when you`re driving past a lumpy, bumpy field and you wonder what made the lumps and bumps; for when you`re walking between two lines of grand trees, wondering when and why they were planted; for when you see a brown heritage sign pointing to a `tumulus` but you don`t know what to look for... Entertaining and factually rigorous, Hidden Histories will help you decipher the story of Britain`s landscape through the features you can see around you. This spotter`s guide arms the amateur explorer with the crucial information needed to `read` the landscape and spot the human activities that have shaped our green and pleasant land. Photographs and diagrams point out specific details and typical examples to help the curious spotter `get their eye in` and understand what they`re looking at, or looking for. Specially commissioned illustrations bring to life the processes that shaped the landscape (from medieval ploughing to Roman road building). Stand-alone capsules explore interesting aspects of history (like the Highland Clearances or the coming of Christianity), and text boxes provide definitions of jargon or handy references as required (like a glossary of what different field names mean). Each chapter culminates in a checklist of key details to look for, other things it might be, and gives details of where to find some of the best examples in Britain.