Don Aldridge was Assistant Director of the Countryside Commission for Scotland responsible for conservation and education. He was asked to speak at the Council of Europe on several occasions. This book was designed both to entertain and to educate the delegates in the 1970s and 80s and includes many original cartoons and drawings. It discusses the conflict between nature and recreation, nature trails, museums, botanical gardens, guides, research, grants, environmental ethics, theme parks and interpretation. I personally believe he was years ahead of his time and have therefore done what I can to preserve his work for posterity.

Preface "This is a book about that fashionable word 'environment', a painless introduction which explains how to communicate the significance of a place to those who visit it (sometimes called 'interpretation'). The Chapters cover 15 illustrated talks , most of which were given by the author at the International Council of Europe meetings, in the form of very long strip cartoons drawn on continuous rolls of drawing materials - if all the originals has been stretched, end to end, they might well have gone round the Council's Strasbourg headquarters three times.... This modest volumes gives a popular account of the authors earlier (unpopular) works on this very complex subject - so fraught with perils, traps, difficulties, misunderstandings, obstacles, pitfalls and (of course) very long sentences."

Chapters
1 Up the Watermice !
2 Ouch! Lets take a nature trail
3 Ah ! Facilities !
4 Art museum to Historical museum
5 Don't forget the muses
6 Do you dig botanical gardens ?
7 Town and Country mouse
8 Only one environmental ethic ?
9 The guide
10 The greatest audio/visual show on earth
11 The theme park
12 A plan for all regions ?
13 The wonderful world of research
14 Where do you keep your gold ?
15 Let's organise the world !

Published for the Council of Europe by Geo Abstracts Copyright 1981