Paul Wreyford

[This is a review I wrote in 2009]

**A really interesting guide but the layout lets it down a little**

Meticulously researched, this book is packed full of information but unfortunately you have to read it carefully from cover to cover to really gain the most benefit. The author shows that the county of Bucks is extremely rich in literary associations and well worth exploring. The county can be linked to numerous writers, including T. H. White, Jerome K. Jerome, Rose Macaulay, G. K. Chesterton, Rebecca West, John Masefield, John Milton, Enid Blyton, Alison Uttley, Roald Dahl, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley. Wreyford has also done some good research into the ecclesiastical authors of Buckinghamshire and there is much of worth here for those interested in eminent men of religion, authors of religious tracts and men like William Cowper, known both for his hymn-writing and his rural poetry.

A few snippets that particularly interested me (but there are loads more!): Flora Thompson's sister, Betty Timms wrote a popular children's book, 'The Little Grey Men of the Moor' in 1926, J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Farmer Giles of Ham' is the Lord of Thame and Count of Worminghall, Turville Church stars in 'The Vicar of Dibley and the windmill nearby features in the original 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' film. The book is packed full of information, but unfortunately I have a some minor criticisms.

The organisation of the material is erratic. The information is arranged by place names, and yet the place names are not arranged in any seemingly logical fashion - not alphabetical. To find out about one writer's connections to the county, i.e. poet John Milton, you turn to the index at the back, find 9 separate entries for Milton and then read through them individually, trying to piece the connections together. If, alternatively, you approach the book by reading through place by place you have to try and remember previous entries for each writer so that the 'snippets' about them continue to make sense. In addition, for each entry you have to concentrate hard to work out where you are in time frame as it is not always immediately obvious - you need a certain level of prior knowledge to know whether you are reading about a seventeenth-century writer or a nineteenth-century writer, or someone writing in the 1920s or the 1950s. If you are interested in just certain places in the county, i.e. visiting a particular area, you will find navigating the book tricky as there is no place-name index. As it is, you more or less need to skim through the whole book to find out about places of interest to you personally. For the price of the book I think a few good quality colour images would have been a boost, to show off some of the places and famous landmarks associated with these authors. The grainy black and white pictures fall somewhat flat. My last quibble is that some references would have been a nice addition in a few places in the book - a help to readers interested in exploring associations in more depth.

My criticisms stem mainly from the fact that I like the book a lot but think it could have been a brilliant little book with better organisation and production. Overall, it is a well researched and fascinating guide and the author should be commended for his excellent research. However, the book is best for leisurely reading rather than a traveller's guide.… (altro)