A HILL FARMER'S YEAR. By Ian Alcock. Illustrated by Rodger McPhail.

1995 1st edition. 4to (193 x 252mm). Pp163. Colour plates and monochrome illustrations by Rodger McPhail. Dark green cloth, spine titled in gilt.

Ian Alcock farms in Aberdeenshire and is a well-known authority on deer. "Britain's uplands, and the wildlife and way of life that they sustain, are increasingly threatened by human influences. Hill farmers, on whom the maintenance of this environment depends, struggle to make a sustainable living, while increased leisure and better communications has encouraged an influx of hill-walkers, picknickers and mountain-bikers. All of them value the hills, but few visitors know much about the life and work of the farmer who moulds that landscape, or the ways of the wildlife that lives there. This book seeks to open the eyes of all who are interested in the life of the British uplands in the 1990's and beyond, and who are keen to look over the stone walls to learn more about the life of the fields and the hill grazings." Includes many good illustrations by Rodger McPhail.