Unlike most other books dealing with hiking, bushwalking or camping, the Penguin Book of the Bush will assist both first timers and experienced bush venturers to enjoy: their excursion. It is saddening to realise that it has become necessary to encourage Australians, once renowned for their outdoor image, to experience and enjoy the bush. Edward Kynaston's book includes seven chapters which do just this. He does not advocate just tramping hastily over a piece of country intent only on reaching your destination; rather he encourages you to regard the environments through which you pass as more than just a series of landmarks.

Writers of books on Australian outdoor life all too often see the landscape and everything within it either as an accomplished fact or as an alien force with which to do battle. Kynaston, on the other hand, describes the long evolution of our non-urban environment from its beginnings to its present state, and includes a description of colonisations by rabbits, foxes, donkeys and other recent arrivals. The misguided attempts to establish alpacas, curassows, cochineal beetles and other equally exotic creatures and plants are described in Chapter Five: The Unwelcome Migrants. Native plants, animals, and birds are introduced to the reader. The silhouettes of bird groups will be of particular assistance if you are interested in knowing what sort of bird you are looking at. These and other simplified outlines in the book offer convenient starting points on which to base future knowledge.