UK

This guidebook describes 35 varied day walks in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in southern England. The Chiltern (read more)

This guidebook describes 35 varied day walks in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in southern England. The Chiltern Hills follow a line of chalk from the River Thames at Goring up to the Barton Hills just west of Hitchin, through Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, with great views from the north west edge and, on the south east side, a more intimate undulating landscape of rounded hills and valleys, covered in a mix of broadleaved woodland and open farmland. The walks take you on a journey through this classic Chiltern landscape that has been shaped by human activity for thousands of years, visiting interesting historic sites, colourful gardens and picture-postcard villages with thatched cottages, fascinating churches and cosy pubs.

Step by step route directions include lots of information about all these sites along the way and are illustrated with clear OS mapping and vibrant photographs. Written by a real local enthusiast. (hide)

This guidebook - which includes both a guide to the route and a separate OS map booklet - describes Offa's Dyke Path National Trail (read more)

This guidebook - which includes both a guide to the route and a separate OS map booklet - describes Offa's Dyke Path National Trail from south to north, following the longest linear earthwork in Britain, running 177 miles along the English-Welsh border between Sedbury (near Chepstow) and Prestatyn on the north Wales Coast. The book splits one of Britain's classic trails into 12 stages suitable for walkers of all abilities. Step-by-step route descriptions are accompanied by 1:100,000 OS map extracts.

Also included with this guidebook is a booklet of 1:25,000 OS maps, which provides all the mapping needed to complete the trail in a compact form. A trek planner gives at a glance information about facilities, public transport and accommodation available along the route. The walk is astonishingly varied, taking in the lower Wye gorge, the Severn and the Dee rift valley, the pastures and woodlands of the border country, the remote moorland of the Black Mountains and the Clwydian range, and the dramatic limestone escarpments of Eglwyseg mountain. (hide)

A journey along one of Britain's oldest roads, from Dover to Anglesey, in search of the hidden history that makes us who we are today. (read more)

A journey along one of Britain's oldest roads, from Dover to Anglesey, in search of the hidden history that makes us who we are today. Long ago a path was created by the passage of feet tramping through endless forests. Gradually that path became a track, and the track became a road.

It connected the White Cliffs of Dover to the Druid groves of the Welsh island of Anglesey, across a land that was first called Albion then Britain, Mercia and eventually England and Wales. Armies from Rome arrived and straightened this 444 kilometres of meandering track, which in the Dark Ages gained the name Watling Street. Today, this ancient road goes by many different names: the A2, the A5 and the M6 Toll.

Published:13 Jul 2017 (hide)

Until the railways arrived, Weston-super-Mare was a town without a history. Weston grew into a major seaside resort from a little (read more)

Until the railways arrived, Weston-super-Mare was a town without a history. Weston grew into a major seaside resort from a little fishing village with just a handful of houses in under one hundred years. After a period of decline, it has sucessfully recreated itself as a holiday destination for the twenty-first century and as one of Somerset's major towns.

Iron-Age settlers, Romans, seventeenth-century smugglers, John Cleese (television comedian and top-selling writer of Monty Python fame), actors and even the wireless pioneer Gugliemo Marconi play a part in the story of Weston's past. A walk along the town's seafront demonstrates the amazing diversity of the town, encompassing Victorian enterprise, Edwardian splendour, the commercial endeavour of the new-Elizabethans and the remarkable flood defences of the twenty-first century. This edition of Weston-super-Mare Through Time is fully updated. (hide)

Who travelling through Totteridge and Whetstone is aware that the station got its name from the medieval soldiers who sharpened their (read more)

Who travelling through Totteridge and Whetstone is aware that the station got its name from the medieval soldiers who sharpened their swords at the whetstone before the bloody Battle of Barnet? Or that Canary Wharf was built for importing fruit from the Canary Islands? Or that Shepherd's Bush was previously known as Gagglegoose Green? The names of the 300 or so underground stations are part of everyday life for Londoners, but we hardly ever question their meanings or history. This entertaining book delves into their origins, ensuring you never view your journey beneath the city in the same way again. (hide)

It's not until we push ourselves past our perceived limits, till we feel so cold and so tired that we feel we can't go on any further, (read more)

It's not until we push ourselves past our perceived limits, till we feel so cold and so tired that we feel we can't go on any further, that we discover what we are truly capable of...Britain's most famous wild camper and best-selling author of Extreme Sleeps, Phoebe Smith, is back. After bivvying under boulders and camping in caves on her last tent-bound adventure, she's decided to hit the UK's wild places once again but this time take it further. Determined to discover what defines a truly 'extreme' night out, and see if she has the guts to do it, she heads to the extremities of the country.

Battling whiteouts in Wales, facing monster waves in Suffolk and attempting to make camp in gale-force winds on Britain's highest mountain, Phoebe takes us on a series of inspirational expeditions into the wilderness as she quests to find the ultimate pitch. (hide)

In Wilding, Isabella Tree tells the story of the `Knepp experiment', a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, using free-roaming (read more)

In Wilding, Isabella Tree tells the story of the `Knepp experiment', a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, using free-roaming grazing animals to create new habitats for wildlife. Part gripping memoir, part fascinating account of the ecology of our countryside, Wilding is, above all, an inspiring story of hope. Forced to accept that intensive farming on the heavy clay of their land at Knepp was economically unsustainable, Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell made a spectacular leap of faith: they decided to step back and let nature take over.
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Women's London is the only guidebook that focuses on the women who have shaped London through the centuries and the legacy they have (read more)

Women's London is the only guidebook that focuses on the women who have shaped London through the centuries and the legacy they have left behind. This new book provides the perfect opportunity to explore sights, statues, plaques and buildings associated with famous and some not so famous women who have left their mark on London's heritage, culture and society. Their stories include scientists and suffragettes, reformers and royals, military and medical pioneers, authors and artists, fashion and female firsts ...

and more. The author, a popular London tour guide and lecturer, specialises in women's history and has provided a series of original self-guided walking tours taking you to historic areas where important women lived, worked and are commemorated. Illustrated with new full-colour photography and specially commissioned maps, Women's London will inspire visitors and Londoners alike to discover how much London owes to women.
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Wordsmiths and Warriors explores the heritage of English through the places in Britain that shaped it. It unites the warriors, whose (read more)

Wordsmiths and Warriors explores the heritage of English through the places in Britain that shaped it. It unites the warriors, whose invasions transformed the language, with the poets, scholars, reformers, and others who helped create its character. The book relates a real journey.

David and Hilary Crystal drove thousands of miles to produce this fascinating combination of English-language history and travelogue, from locations in south-east Kent to the Scottish lowlands, and from south-west Wales to the East Anglian coast. David provides the descriptions and linguistic associations, Hilary the full-colour photographs. They include a guide for anyone wanting to follow in their footsteps but arrange the book to reflect the chronology of the language.
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There is no single event in the history of our nation that has impacted society as profoundly as the Norman Conquest. These were (read more)

There is no single event in the history of our nation that has impacted society as profoundly as the Norman Conquest. These were brutal times and revolts prompted the erection of a large number of timber and earth castles, the majority being built between 1071 and 1145\. Yorkshire has many examples and this book goes in search of sites that represent the earliest feudal stamp of the Normans on the county s landscape.

Many are situated off the beaten track and command superb views of outstandingly beautiful countryside, while others are close to populated areas. In some instances, the visible remains have long since blended into the local scenery due to land cultivation, decay, neglect, vandalism, or uncaring (or unwitting) civil engineering works. A few were subsequently development in stone, but the majority remain obscure and go largely unnoticed by all but the most informed visitor. (hide)