Coming along nicely in time for Christmas are two sumptuous new books of photographs from York-based landscape photographer John Potter.

It was John who brought out last year's Yorkshire Dales Villages - a glossy, 96-page volume that put the focus on remote Dales villages and Dales life.

Now he has followed that up with Yorkshire Dales Panoramas and The Yorkshire Coast & North York Moors Landscapes.

Landscapes have always been the Acomb photographer's first love - he is, after all, a former winner of the Kodak and Country Walking Magazine Landscape Photographer Of The Year title.

There are some truly spectacular wide-angle photos in the Dales book, which give a joyous sense of the wide-skied upland beauty of this wonderful national park. Among my favourites is a photo of the Cheese Press stones in Kingsdale, in the heart of Dales limestone country. Studying this photo is the next best thing to actually standing there where the picture was taken and doing a sweeping, 360-degree turn, gulping in great lungfuls of fresh air and then shouting at the sky for the sheer joy of it.

John has captured the Dales in all seasons and at all times of day - from an extraordinary early morning (or is it late afternoon?) shot of an autumnal Dentdale to a widescreen Wharfedale in winter. Stunning.

The coast and moors book is slightly less successful for me - the landscape photos here lack the panoramic grandeur of the Dales pictures. But there are some stunning photographs nonetheless - among my favourites, a shot of the scored and striated rocks of Bempton Cliffs, looking as though they are taking a defiant stride deep out into the North Sea.

Wonderful Christmas gifts, either of these books, for any lover of the outdoors who quite likes to do his or her exploring sitting in a deep chair in front of a roaring fire.