The Peak District, Britain's first national park, is a land of great natural beauty, visited by millions of people every year. This New Naturalist volume on the region highlights the wonder and magic of its windswept vistas, rock formations, storied history and fantastic wildlife, revealing its ecological foundations, showing how it has fared over the centuries and projecting what the future might hold. As a botanist and ecologist who has spent her working life in the Peak District, Penny Anderson brings an ecological perspective, viewing the habitats and their species as an interconnected whole linked to the development of the landscape through its geology and geomorphological processes, while simultaneously weaving in human history and local myths and legends to bring to life the evolution of the area. The Peak District is a special place at an ecological crossroads where many northern and southern species meet. It has splendidly rich wildlife, varied ecosystems and a long history of human interaction with the land, and this book gives a flavour of its diversity and value.