Description:
What you notice right off are the maps. They're big and easy to read, colorful, and beautifully made. The opening map reveals England and Scotland as well as the Shetland and Orkney Islands, plus Ireland and the northern coast of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Turn the page and you come to another outstanding map, this one of Regional Great Britain, color-coded to distinguish between East Anglia, Wessex, Devon, and the Thames Valley, and displaying all the major motorways, roads, railway lines, airports, coach stations, airports, ferry ports, and a mileage chart. Portrait of Britain may be a tad heavy (more than five pounds) to lug along on a trip, but the maps in this coffee-table compendium are well worth packing. Maps aside, the book is an Anglophile's dream, covering history, regional traditions, architecture, culture, and food. The pictures are of outstanding quality. (The hills of Widecombe-in-the-Moor are as lusciously verdant as the Eton schoolboys are austerely prim and the afternoon tea at Thornbury Castle Hotel is elegant.) Portrait of Britain explains the development of British gardens, the history of the pansy flower, the structure of stately homes, and the construction of the thatched cob cottage. There are essays on flora and fauna, aristocracy, pub draughts, the cheeses of England, tea time, the Spanish armada, and the Chippendale chair. There's also a calendar of oh-so-British happenings, including the Crufts Dog Show in Birmingham, the Oyster Festival in Colchester, and Maundy Thursday when the Queen hands out money to pensioners. Then come the regional sections, providing an extraordinary quantity of information on every segment of Great Britain, from London and Wales to the Midlands and Scotland--detailing gardens, castles, cathedrals, hikes, Museums, shopping, historic streets and suggested routes, all embellished with the kind of pictures that make it hard to plan a sensible itinerary. For inspirational photography and text, you can't beat what DK produces. It's a severe trial to browse Portrait of Britain and not book a flight to Heathrow. --Stephanie Gold
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