THIS is a lucid, thoughtful and intimate geography of the British Isles. Ostensibly Kohn is concerned with “how the British Isles will change as the world heats up”, as the subtitle has it, but he writes about the past as much as the future. The story of what Britons will soon have to cope with is all the more compelling set against the backdrop of their landscape evolving over thousands of years.
The book is also distinguished by not being apocalyptic. London, we learn, will soon swelter in an island of urban heat, the Sussex coast will be sacrificed to…
