Walking With Beasts: A Prehistoric Safari by Tim Haines (£19.99) and Wildlife Photographer Of The Year (£25, both published by BBC Worldwide)

BOTH these books are monsters - one quite literally and the other in a more metaphorical sense.

Walking With Beasts brings to life the creatures that stalked the earth in between the eras of the dinosaurs and the modern mammals. Here is an extinct world, one that no man has ever set eyes upon - that is, until now.

Tim Haines features more than 220 illustrations that help to recreate a lost time, exploring the rise of mammals to the arrival of Mankind.

And what an incredible planet this must have been, a globe where the birds were gigantic and horses minute, when warm-blooded animals were laying the foundations for taking over the earth.

The book reveals the plants, insects, climate and geography of the era, visiting spectacular locations around the globe, where ancient plant species can still be found.

Illustrated boxes describe the latest scientific evidence on the reconstruction of these creatures. Whereas Walking With Beasts assaults the senses, Wildlife Photographer Of The Year is of a more soothing nature.

This magnificent collection of 115 pictures comprises the winning and commended photographs from the BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition 2001.

Chosen from 19,000 entries, these memorable images represent the work of amateur and professional photographers from more than 60 countries around the world.

With the festive season not so many weeks ahead, both these sterling works deserve a place in the Yuletide pillowcase of that special person who is capable of marvelling at nature past and present. John Phillpott