From Neolithic times until very recently the history of our woodlands has been one of inexorable decline. By the mid-twelfth century forests covered approximately fifteen per cent of Britain, only to sink to a mere five per cent in 1900, by which time the country had become the world's foremost importer of timber. Housing, shipbuilding, the exigencies of war and the insatiable demand for charcoal for metal smelting and bark for the tanning trade were among the earlier contributors to the run down of national woodland stocks. The burgeoning coal mining industry absorbed millions of tons of timber, principally for pit props, while the two great twentieth-century wars imposed further pressure on what was now a rapidly diminishing resource. Between 1914 and 1918, 450,000 hectares of timber were felled. A quarter of a century later, when Britain lay once again under virtual siege, a further forty-six per cent of the stock of growing timber was consumed to meet the needs of the mines, aircraft production and the chemical and munitions industries. Today, as a result of the combined activities of the Forestry Commission, established in 1919, of private landlords, encouraged by various financial incentives, and of charitable trusts, interested in conservation and amenity issues, some twelve per cent of our land surface is afforested. In effect, between the early 1960s and the present, 1.6 million hectares of soft and hardwoods have been planted.

While he does not pretend to write a fully comprehensive history of forestry in Britain, David Foot offers in this volume a useful guide to the key stages of this history. He pilots us through the legislative framework, introduces some of the many and varied characters involved in both state and private afforestation over the past century and discusses the inherent tensions between the sometimes conflicting objectives of strategic timber provision and the demands of conservation, amenity, access, landscape aesthetics and the requirements of wildlife. The timber trade and the timber market are brought sharply into focus, along with the numerous contemporary schemes aimed at encouraging farmers and landowners to improve and extend their woodlands. If the text is sometimes disjointed and episodic, the book is beautifully illustrated throughout and will prove a handy work of reference both to students of forestry and those interested in the history and evolution of our landscape.

Widespread planting of conifers in the hills and uplands during the 1950s and 1960s led to serious technical problems for farmers as the upper slopes were enclosed for Sitka Spruce, thereby isolating the higher hills. While these difficulties were eventually circumvented, some people at the time questioned the wisdom of planting trees on land of strategic importance for farming. Readers of Foot's work might care to ponder this issue. It would seem sensible for an island nation whose land resources are being constantly eroded by the inexorable demand for homes, roads and warehouses, principally containing imported goods of questionable utility, to take great care of its remaining land. To plant trees on poor and marginal land is a virtue; to do so on productive farmland seems to me tantamount to treason.