This is an exhaustively researched book, and no detail is too small for Wright to include. On the one hand, this can be extremely interesting, as details on hedge construction and ecology - liberally interspersed with photographs - give a well-rounded summary of hedges in the UK. I'm forced to admit, though, that by the end I was slogging through it, wondering how much more there could possibly be, and it's entirely possible that, by the final chapter, I had entirely hit my limit on hedges. I'm not sure if it's more or less helpful that my own country doesn't really have the same history of hedgerows, so a lot of what I'm reading is only vaguely familiar, reminiscent as it was of the times I worked in country pubs on my OE. Perhaps if more of them were out my own front door I'd be slightly more fascinated. As it was, the lengthy middle section on species found in hedgerows left me glazed over more than once.

That being said, I was genuinely compelled by the arguments for species abundance, how the type and height of a hedge affected this, and the parallels to woodland edges. So, all in all, despite some slumpy bits, it was well worth reading in the end.