There are few people more qualified to have written this book on the geology of Oxfordshire than Philip Powell. He read geology at Oriel College, Oxford, and from 1961 until his recent retirement was assistant curator of the Geological Collections at the University Museum of Natural History at Oxford.

And it is not before time that it should have been written as it is nearly 60 years since the previous book on the county\'s geology was written by W J Arkell.

Philip Powell has filled the gap, and anyone interested in the rich variety of Oxfordshire\'s countryside and why the modern county looks like it does will find much to celebrate in this new book.

What is now Oxfordshire spent much of its past under warm, shallow seas. Later it became an arid plain on the southern rim of a new continent stretching from Canada to Russia.

The ironstone hills around banbury, the Cotswold valleys in the west, the chalk downs and lush lowlands of the Thames valley are all the result of 400 million years of often cataclysmic upheaval.

In the rocks, dinosaur footprints have been found near Bicester and Oxford High Strfeet has revealed the fossilised teeth of lions, bison and mammoths.

This is a story told by an enthusiast of how the rocks and fossils originated. It is a journey through time and space that is fascinating and eminently readable for the non-specialist as well as anyone interested in geology and building stone, because the text includes examples of how building stones such as Taynton, Hornton and Wheatley have been used.

The book includes more than 100 colour illustrations and a generous selection of 30 maps and diagrams.

The Geology of Oxfordshire, ISBN 1 904349 19 6, is available from