Hampshire's coast runs from Highcliffe on the Dorset border to Chichester Harbour in West Sussex. Although this distance is about 55 kilometres (34 miles) long as the crow flies, the actual distance, following every creek and inlet of each harbour and estuary, is in excess of 370 kilometres (230 miles).

Although Hampshire's coast does not have the extensive unspoilt scenic beauty that typifies neighbouring Dorset, it is remarkably varied and important for many reasons, particularly for its commercial ports, wildlife, historic heritage, recreation (especially sailing), tourism and marine industries. The area between the Hampshire coast and the Isle of Wight is generally known as the Solent. It is one of the busiest coastal zones in England, yet it retains areas of national importance for its landscape and nature conservation value. Consequently, it is highly valued by residents and visitors alike, and each will find the aerial photographs in this book equally fascinating.

The Isle of Wight has a superb coastline around which much of the settlement has taken place. While the island is worthy of a book all its own (and is soon to follow in this series), the photographs included in this volume provide a glimpse of the island's unique qualities.

The principal attraction of aerial photographs is that they are literally a bird's-eye view, allowing us to look down on the landscape from a perspective that we never normally see. Such pictures reveal to us things that are normally hidden from view, and often surprise us when we find that what we had imagined the layout of the land to be is in reality quite different. The best practitioners of this genre of photography also strive to capture an aesthetic in the images they take, and these pictures, sometimes quite abstract in appearance, are often strikingly beautiful in their own right.

Hardback, 144 pages, 215x230mm, over 120 colour illustrations,