Despite its size - bigger than western Europe - and proximity to the European community, Algeria remains a little-known country, seldom getting coverage in western media. The majesty of its breathtaking Sahara landscapes is known to few. But despite the decade-long extremist-based security situation, author Sheppard, who has been visiting Algeria since 1961, has made six long-range, solo expeditions to remote uninhabited areas in the last eight years. No mere picture-book, the volume is a personal portfolio and record backing the author's passionate plea for a Protected Area that he calls, not a 'National Park' with its prissy overtones of fenced-in plots, but an espace des paysages - Space of Landscapes. A book to make all who read it stop and think.