The Lake District possesses some of the wildest countryside in England, with an abundance of sites designated for nature conservation, including its largest National Park. But Wild Lakeland is not simply a natural history or wildlife guidebook. It paints a wider canvas by following a journey from the sea to the summits, focussing on wildlife habitats and weaving in stories of people and places of wildlife discovery. After a scene-setting introduction, award-winning author Martin Varley takes us in turn to the Cumbrian coast; the freshwater habitats of lakes and rivers; the role of man on the Lakeland scene; through to woodlands, heath and the extreme habitats of the rocks and crags for which the area is perhaps best-known.

The book ends with an examination of the future for wild Lakeland, with reference to the current agricultural reforms which will shape the future of farming, plus the increasing role of conservation organisations and the underlying groundswell of support for a return to a ‘wilder’ landscape.

Martin Varley is Communications Officer for the Friends of the Lake District, and was the editor of Lakeland Life in the ‘40s and ‘50s, the Halsgrove publication which won the Lakeland Book of the Year Award in 2004.

ISBN 1841144754, hardback, 230x215mm, 144 pages.