Bentley has authored what is more or less a coffee-table book depicting villages in England. He opens with an essay about villages and the types found in England. He then proceeds alphabetically by region with selected villages. Each village includes a description of the village with a brief historical sketch. Many of the photographs included photographs of buildings. I would have preferred to have seen more photographs of gardens or the buildings in their natural habitat as that is what I associate with a village's beauty. The latter part of the book did a better job of doing this than the earlier portion. It's an interesting book, but it didn't quite meet my expectations. ( )