In the post-War years, this once quiet rural backwater between Oxford and Cambridge has undergone growth and change - and the expert camera of Eric Meadows has captured it all.

We see an enormous variety of landscape, natural and manmade, from yesteryear and today - open downs and rolling farmland, woods and commons, ancient earthworks, lakes and moats, vanished elms, quarries, nature reserves and landscape gardens. Here are many building styles - churches of all periods, stately homes and town dwellings, rural pubs, gatehouses and bridges. Secluded villages contrast their timeless lifestyle with the bustle of modern developing towns and their industries.

Distilled from a huge collection of 25,000 photographs, this book offers his personal selection of over 350 that best display the area's most attractive features and its notable changes during nearly 50 years. The author's detailed captions and notes complete a valuable local history.

ERIC MEADOWS was born in Luton in 1924, educated at St. Albans School, and during his army service (1944-47) he attended evening photography classes at Central Polytechnic, Regent Street. His colour photography has appeared on 20 covers of Country Life, he has contributed to Pevsner's Buildings of England books, and has illustrated books, magazines and calendars.

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