If a nation could be said to have a dominant passion, New Zealand's would be its landscapes. Images of spectacular natural features pervade the media - in the pages of glossy coffee-table books, in tourism promotions, and on movie screens as the setting for blockbuster movies - but are these scenes that define its people? For Beyond the Scene, 11 well-known writers from a range of disciplines have been asked to explore the many meanings of landscape by choosing one that was important to them and writing about it from the perspective of their life experience and knowledge. From farmer to art historian and film critic, geographer and planner to lawyer, from landscape architect to poet and environmentalist - these are diverse voices. Each writer discusses a very different landscape, including Auckland's southern suburbs, rural Waikato, a planned town in Canterbury, much-filmed Otago, Taranaki's iconic volcano, and more. Together, they investigate the relationship landscape has to identity, community, and psyche.