This account, by an island ecologist, is aimed at the non-specialist visitor to Lundy and provides details of the vegetation, animal life and rock types of this three-mile-long granite outpost off the North Devon coast.

The author’s periods of study have been scattered over fifty-two years from the middle of the twentieth century to the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first. Descriptions of representative habitats try to convey the allure of the island, while the many illustrations both in colour and black and white help enhance the visitor’s enjoyment of their stay, and serve to encourage further visits.

This is a stable natural system, held in check by the almost continuous windiness, which nips any lasting ecological changes in the bud. Lundy has much to offer, attracting thousands of birdwatchers and naturalists, and this book will be seen as a major contribution to the study of this unique and much-loved island.

Dr Mary E. Gillham was born in 1921. The pressing of flowers and writing of nature diaries loomed large in her formative years, and she worked through the war years in the Women's Land Army. After training as a professional botanist specialising in island ecology, she became a lecturer, principally in the University of Wales at Cardiff, but for shorter periods in Universities at Exeter, Melbourne, Palmerston North (New Zealand) and Kano (Nigeria).

Field work was an important part of her lecturing years and she conducted parties (of undergraduates and interested adults) on eco tours at home and abroad. Her 'guided walks' ranged from regenerating coal tips to the Seychelles – her island research studies from the sub-Antarctic to the Tropics. In retirement she lives on the lower slopes of a mountain near Cardiff.

ISBN 978 184114 589 1, paperback, 210x148mm, 176 pages. Published April 2007.

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