This book brings together a varied collection of material relating to projects on which I have worked as a landscape architect and planner, from a single field in East Anglia to a whole continent. I argue that landscape belongs – is “common” – to us all. Landscapes are for living in, and many of their components meet our material needs. But there is more – landscapes are part of our lives, places where values and emotions co-exist, giving us a different form of sustenance not met by other means. My work in the East Anglian landscape has included a water storage project in the Wash, and the Broad at the University of East Anglia; while more personal satisfaction has come from the acquisition of “the Moat”, a field of heavy Norfolk clay with a medieval moat in the centre that our family has planted, tended and enjoyed over many years. I examine and contemplate the link between landscape and history; the portrayal of landscape through art and poetry; landscapes that “surprise”; and landscapes beyond our own planet.

R. S. Thomas’s poem “Those Others” resonates:
"I have looked long on this land, Trying to understand
My place in it."

Words more eloquent than mine, and they describe my efforts over many years.