'Regional histories - as opposed to national or local histories - present at least two particular challenges to their authors. One challenge is to portray an area that is recognisably a region, with its own distinctive physical and social influences and circumstances, and an awareness by its inhabitants that something sets them apart from dwellers in other regions. Another challenge is to compress within the pages of a single monograph the diversities a~ well as the consistencies that constitute the history of that region.' (Introduction)