The Geography Collection Core Text. World Wide Edited by Ian Selmes, #163;16.99. - 0 340 61865 5 Time and Tide. By Jane Dove. #163;4.99. - 0 340 61869 8 Development Issues. By Sarah Whymark. #163;4.99. - 0 340 61867 1 Within the Earth. By Tony Land. #163;4.99. - 0 340 61866 3, Hodder amp; Stoughton

Heinemann 16 - 19 Geography: The Physical Environment. Edited by Bob Digby. Heinemann #163;14.99. - 0 435 35227 X. A Concise Advanced Geography. By Tim Bayliss. Oxford University Press #163;7.50. - 0 19 914660 8 Age range 16-plus

These books attempt to provide comprehensive supporting texts for A and AS- level teachers using four different approaches.

Waugh and Witherick are one-volume enquire-within compendia, all-embracing in their scope. Selmes and his team give us a core text, plus supporting units. Digby’s book is one of two volumes which deal respectively with physical and human geography, linked together by discussions of environmental management themes. Bayliss contributes a genuine student’s handbook, short, concise, economical, cheap and beautifully clear in its layout. All the books contain ideas and materials of excellent quality and all are therefore to be recommended as teachers’ references.

The one-volume gigabyte texts present practical problems for class use. The average sixth-former will find a book of 593 pages and weighing 1.6kg (Waugh) or of 516 pages and 1.4kg (Witherick) daunting, even though both are attractively produced. Lydia Languish is reputed to have enjoyed reading three-volume novels, but today’s teenage students rarely take to texts of such length. And few schools can afford to buy class sets of books which cost around Pounds 20 each. Even if they could, it is difficult to see how to use sections without overwhelming students with the whole book; yet sections are most useful. Would it be possible for the publishers to produce big books like this in loose-leaf format, with each section in a plastic envelope?

David Waugh’s Geography: an integrated approach is a thorough revision of his first 1990 edition. Every section has been submitted to an academic expert for review, fresh materials have been added on farming and food, energy, manufacturing and service industries and development; and new case-studies have been placed in each section. Full colour is now used and the illustrative materials are excellent. This is a notable exposition of A-level geography by one accomplished teacher.

Environment and people, edited by Michael Witherick, also attempts to provide a “one-stop” A-level text. Seven authors with wide experience of A-level teaching and examining have collaborated to produce a coherent, varied and balanced book, packed with ideas and information. The 34 chapters cover all significant A and AS-level topics and are creatively linked by integrating themes which permeate the whole book. These themes are systems, natural hazards, pollution, sustainability, health and leisure and recreation. Studies in Japan and India integrate the materials on a “place” basis. There is also a progressive development of skills throughout the book. No less than 450 suggestions for student enquiry are included. Illustration is partly in colour and is generally well-chosen and visually effective.

Occasional pictures convey misleading images as, for example, that of a Hebridean croft on page 241. Inhabited houses of this kind are rare indeed today. There is much up-to-date material, including an informative section on ex-Yugoslavia. It would have been a good idea here to reproduce Isaiah Bowman’s New World maps of 1928 as a background to the present, ancient troubles. They have never been surpassed in clarity.

The Geography Collection, written by eight sixth-form teachers and one geographer from higher education, is skilfully welded together by Ian Selmes of Oakham School. The core text, World Wide, has 256 pages and nine sections. It begins with studies of physical geography and advances into discussions of economic activity, the geography of towns and population. The logic is compelling, the examples and illustrations brilliantly chosen and worked out. The sheer quantity of good material provides the basis for more lessons than time will ever allow. The three 48-page extension units take particular A-level topics and develop them imaginatively; more units are promised.

The Physical Environment, edited by Bob Digby, has contributions from eight authors, all experienced in A-level teaching and examining. This is a splendidly worked-out study of environmental geography, starting from the forms and processes of the natural world. It is closely adjusted to ULEAC syllabus requirements but can be used to advantage with any syllabus.It simply is a good teaching book.

A Concise Advanced Geography by Tim Bayliss is a first-rate student’s resource. It covers all necessary aspects of the syllabuses in the form of concise notes and diagrams. There are 19 sections, beginning with earth structures and ending with recreation and tourism. This last section needs expanding; after all, tourism is now the world’s biggest industry.

En route, sections deal with the essentials of natural-world and human geography. Useful sub-sections explain the proper use of selected statistical methods, the properties of models and other technical matters. Students should certainly be encouraged to buy this book as an invaluable and inexpensive aide memoire and revision guide.

Patrick Bailey is in charge of the PGCE geography course at Loughborough University