A rich, detailed and well-illustrated overview of the landscape of the North East of England. How distinctive is the landscape of the North East of England? How far does its distinctive nature contribute to the region's regional identity? These are key questions addressed by this book. Covering a wide range of subjects including country house landscapes, village landscapes and "townscapes", including coverage of how the region's landscape has been perceived and represented in literature and art, and approaching the subject from a wide range of perspectives including historical, literary, archaeological, art-historical and geographical, the book provides a rich, detailed and well-illustrated overview of the landscape of the North East of England. It demonstrates that this landscape is more subtle, layered and varied than is often supposed, and that stereotypes that the region is grimly industrial and dominated by coal-mining are wrong. Overall, besides much interesting detail and many new research findings, the book vividly evokes the landscapes and the spirit of place of the North East. Dr THOMAS FAULKNER is Visiting Fellow, School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle; Dr HELEN BERRY is Reader in Early Modern History, School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle; Dr JEREMY GREGORY is Senior Lecturer, Dept. Religions and Theology, University of Manchester. Contributors: S. M. COUSINS, A. W. PURDUE, S. A. CAUNCE, STEVEN DESMOND, JUDITH BETNEY, VERONICA GOULTY, FIONA GREEN, ADRIAN GREEN, WINIFRED STOKES, HILARY J. GRAINGER, MARTIN ROBERTS, GILLIAN COOKSON, THOMAS FAULKNER, LINDA POLLEY, HELEN BERRY, HUGH DIXON, JAN HEWITT, LAURA NEWTON.

For the past twenty years, Scottish death culture has emerged as a focus of scholars drawn from a wide variety of disciplines. Death comes to us all but too often we treat it as a private or personal matter. The former taboo about death is slowly lifting and contemporary research is playing an increasing part. Accordingly, the fifteen essays gathered in this book probe the multi-facetted role of death in Scottish history and culture. They explore personal fears of death, anxieties about Predestination, prayers for the dead and the appeal of Spiritualism. They analyse the public face of death in law, economics and medicine: changes in capital punishment, funeral poverty, the teaching of anatomy and prevention of stillbirths. Within the worlds of religion and ritual, they consider the making of saints, burial practice following the Scottish Reformation and the tradition of keening within the Gaidhealtachd. With an Introduction by Professor Jane Dawson, these essays by specialists in the field not only highlight the richness of the primary sources for studying death in Scotland but reveal how death studies identify key features of Scottish life and society across ten centuries.