David McDowall has lived and wortked in different parts of the world: in Hong Kong, India, Iraq, Lebanon and Austria, serving in HM Forces, the British Council and the United Nations. He has travelled widely in the Near East and has written extensively on Britain and Middle Eastern history, in partiuclar on the Palestine question, the Lebanese conflict, and the Kurds of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. He now writes walkers' guides to some of Britain's historic landscapes. He is married to the writer Elizabeth Laird

• 1. Four walks and explorations for the town of Rothesay and central Bute 2.Ten walks or explorations for Kingarth and southern Bute3. Four walks or explorations for northern Bute4. Background notes on geology, climate change and the landscape; prehistory; history; life on the land; life at sea; industry; transport; bygone cultures;nature