1995 / Paperback / 96 pages / UK
**
We're not the most famous county down/up here (you don't even know where it is, do you?), so these local histories and fables aren't the most original or compelling. It's all about the novelty of seeing those familiar place names legitimised in (cheap) print. Reusing the same cover art across counties is especially cheap. They probably assumed that local loyalty meant it wouldn't ever come up, but I saw it.
2012 / Hardback / 64 pages / UK
***
A brief data burst of local knowledge for visitors, newcomers or people who grew up in the county but spent most of that time playing on the Amiga. They might be making some of it up for a laugh, I can't tell, me yed's all of a missock.
2017 / Paperback / 96 pages / UK
***
A roughly linear walk from Acton through the town centre to just past my house, this isn't necessary trivia, but it's satisfying to put names and stories to what would otherwise have been background architecture so I can feel more connected to my new home from the onset, and I'll get to appear casually omniscient when I hand the knowledge down.
1996 / Paperback / 190 pages / UK
****
A quarter-century's vintage will no doubt lead to some confusion when we get out and about, but these places probably don't change all that much. Though if I do get us lost and they have to send out the helicopters, this will be why. He includes routes for buggies, so there's no excuse to dawdle.
2009 / Paperback / 104 pages / UK
****
I'm not sure how this transcends the horizons of a guide, unless it's by comparison to the 12-page Pitkin guide you'd get for the same price, but there's enough timeless information outside of the inevitably hopelessly obsolete business directory to make this indispensable on our first family outing to the nearest city worth visiting. When we're actually allowed.
