Sea Stacks and Sandstone is a celebration of Britain's coastal geology - ammonites and sand, sea stacks and wavecut platforms. It goes paddling in the rock pools to examine the rock samples so perfectly polished up for us by the sea. Between the lichen and the low-tide line, everything is out in the open to be looked at: desert sand dunes emerging out of the ocean; cliffs bent and crumpled by two continents crashing into each other; a band of red-hot basalt squeezed from somewhere in Scotland. Britain today lacks glaciers and volcanoes, but the grand geological earth-shifter we do see is the sea, hard at it around our 6000 miles of coast. And as you wander along the edge of the sand, gradually slowing your eye to the beach-holiday speed of looking at things, you see small creatures, seashells and corals from hundreds of millions of years ago. Real geology isn't looking up the books and memorising long words. Real geology is looking at real rock, and working out what has been happening to it. What Britain is and where it came from, just what's been going on for the last 500 million years: all is revealed, in a continuous slice around our seaside.

Along our shores, towering cliffs from the age of the dinosaurs rise beside wide estuaries teeming with wildlife, while Victorian ports share waterfronts with imposing fortifications. And the people who have lived, worked and played on this spectacular coast - from Stone Age fishermen to seafarers, chart-makers and surfers - have an incredible tale to tell. Coast: Our Island Story is an enthralling account, sparkling with geography, history, adventure and eccentric characters, told with Nick Crane's trademark charisma and wit.

Sandstones form the backdrop to some of the world's most spectacular scenery, and are found all over the planet and in all climates. Following on from the authors' successful 1992 book, this is the only volume that considers sandstone landforms from a truly global perspective. It describes the wide variety of landforms that are found in sandstone, and discusses the role of lithological variation, chemical weathering and erosional processes in creating these features, with examples drawn from around the world. Climatic and tectonic constraints on the development of sandstone landscapes are also considered. This volume provides a comprehensive assessment of the literature from publications in a range of languages, and is illustrated with over 130 photographs of sandstone features from every continent. It presents a holistic account of sandstone terrain for researchers and graduate students in a variety of fields including geography, geomorphology, sedimentology and geomechanics.