John G Kelcey is not an academic but a practitioner of the art of managing natural resources. After graduating in Botany and Geology from the University of Manchester, Britain, he was appointed the ecologist and eventually also the Linear Parks Manager of the new city of Milton Keynes, the first such appointment in Britain. Subsequently he became an ecological consultant and advisor and carried out ecological assessements of major development projects mainly in urban areas, including roads, housing, commercial and retail developments and the provision of recreational facilities such as golf courses. He also prepared management plans, habitat creation schemes and supervised their implementation and has acted as a Resident Engineer. During this time he was a member of nine professional institutions and several learned societies throughout Europe. John Kelcey became interested in the natural history and geology of Europe in the early 1970s and has travelled extensively throughout Europe since that time. He has visited, worked in or lived in virtually all of the cities mentioned in the bibliography and many more besides to study their natural history and the arts and sciences of their countries.