Abstract

186 BOOK REVIEWS as counterbalances to ‘difficult histories’ (e.g. Chapters 9 and 14, on the palace of Het Loo and the Limburg coalfields respectively). There are also chapters on the personal versus public authors of landscape (e.g. Chapters 10 and 12 on Piet Mondrian and a neighbourhood in Utrecht). On the whole, however, the book stays with the existing biographical paradigm rather than going beyond it, which feels a little disappointing because it reinforces highly selec- tive and personalised accounts of the ‘nature’ of landscape. Although the book raises the issue of landscape biography as a useful approach, its strength lies in reinforcing the status quo of Samuels’s approach rather than taking it in new directions. Chapter 14 quotes Ingold’s premise that the landscape tells – or rather is – a story, yet many of the stories in the book lie only on a pre-conditioned surface of landscape (built or otherwise). There are many other surfaces, hidden or below, that are the contribution of countless unknown authors. Many more of these stories need to be told. Oscar Aldred Historic Environment Scotland oscar.aldred@hes.scot http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5207-7905 © 2016 Oscar Aldred http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14662035.2016.1251043 The Story of Alderley: Living with the Edge. Edited by A.