The allure of Great Britain's natural beauty, famously refined culture, and storied history has long attracted visitors. The guide explores all regions, including the countries of Scotland and Wales, covering every corner of this diverse and beguiling land. From venerable Westminster Abbey and the cutting edge art at the Tate Modern museum in London to Shakespeare's scenic hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon to John Lennon's boyhood home in Liverpool, it's all here. Veteran travel author Christopher Somerville, a native Englishman, guides you shire by shire through the fascinating landscape that is 21st-century Britain, beginning with a detailed introduction to the island's history, food, land, and culture-factors that have clearly shaped the distinctive tongue-in-cheek character of the British people. Special features give comprehensive information on diverse topics such as the relaxing parks of London, Wedgewood and the potteries, Thomas Hardy's Dorset, and golfing in Scotland.

The book also offers seventeen guided walks and drives through many of Britain's most scenic and historic regions, including tours of the ancient cities of Oxford and Bath and drives around Snowdonia National Park in Wales and Wordsworth's beautiful Windermere in the hugely popular Lake District.

This newly revised, completely updated edition is illustrated with more than 150 vivid photographs and 30 detailed, full-color maps, and provides recommendations for hotels and restaurants in all price ranges and in all areas.

CHRISTOPHER SOMERVILLE spent his childhood in a remote village in rural Gloucestershire, where he reveled in the freedom to roam the woods, fields, and riverbanks. This upbringing gave him a lifelong love of walking in the open air and a taste for the quieter corners of the British countryside. Since then he has written 40 books and writes regularly for The Times (as Walking Correspondent) and other national publications about his travels in the hidden corners of Britain and Europe. ALISON WRIGHT, a New York-based documentary photographer, has traveled the globe photographing endangered cultures and people. She is published in numerous National Geographic books and publications, is a recipient of the Dorothea Lange Award in Documentary Photography, and a two-time winner of the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award. In 2000, Wright's life was nearly cut short in a bus accident on a remote jungle road in Laos. Her memoir, Learning to Breathe: One Woman's Journey of Spirit and Survival, chronicles her years of rehabilitation and her ongoing determination to recover and continue traveling the world as a photojournalist.