Shakespearean comic actor Will Kemp’s famous Morris dance from London to Norwich, undertaken in 1599, was a bizarre, joyous journey, but also a daunting challenge. A few years earlier, England’s roads had been branded ‘noisome and tedious’, and Kemp was sometimes up to his ankles in mud and flood water as he headed eastwards. Even when conditions improved, he was often delayed by crowds of onlookers, and what he called ‘the congruity of his health’ was under constant threat from his supporters’ well-meaning offers of strong drink – most (though not all!) of which he refused.

Nick Freeth follows in Will’s footsteps, explores the places he passed through, and tells a wealth of stories about other users of the ancient routes into Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.

In Will Kemp’s Wake: from London to Norwich costs £4.99. Buy it from Waterstones via this link: https://www.waterstones.com/book/in-will-kemp-s-wake-from-london-to-norwich/nick-freeth//9781999819897

The few existing publications on Hampshire geology and the hundreds on Hampshire archæology are all fairly specialised; no general survey of either has been published. This book – a companion to John Firth’s Geology and Archæology of Berkshire, issued by Baffin in 2022 (see below) – is intended for non-expert readers: it tells them where to see what it describes, and what to look for when they get there. It also provides appendices, notes and references for those who’d like to know more.

Its 162 pages include 35 colour maps and diagrams and 51 colour photographs, as well as suggestions for 5 guided walks, and directions to 29 interesting sites. It covers mainland Hampshire.

Geology and Archæology of Hampshire is a paperback, and costs £12. Buy it from Waterstones via this link: https://www.waterstones.com/book/geology-and-arch-ology-of-hampshire/john-firth/9781068761409

This book-length poem describes a Londoner’s recent visit to San Francisco: the motivations and attractions that lead him to make his journey; the pleasure he derives from the city’s rich heritage, the ‘gleam and glow’ of its streetscapes and the ‘high-flown wonder’ of the Golden Gate Bridge – and his ultimate recognition that ‘to any stranger’s knowledge of it…there are limits.’ Its nine parts include imagined encounters with a ghostly British air pilot and a False Knight on the Road, thoughts about the Little Boxes made famous by folk singer Pete Seeger, and versified extracts from a diary kept by an English ship’s carpenter on his voyage from Liverpool round Cape Horn to San Francisco in the 1860s.

Its paperback edition costs £3.99. Buy it from Waterstones via this link: https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-stranger-in-san-francisco/nick-freeth/9781999819866

Berkshire contains places of great beauty, and a market town, Thatcham, that may be the longest continuously inhabited settlement in the British Isles. Most books about the county’s ancient human history (archæology) and geology have been written by experts for experts, but this one is aimed at a wider readership: people who aren’t professional scientists, but wish to learn more about an area to which humans and proto-humans have been coming for more than 430,000 years. It tells visitors where to go and what to look for, with guided walks round interesting (and beautiful) places, details of significant sites and museums, 29 maps and diagrams, and 38 colour photographs.

‘An agreeable publication that is well written and of great potential interest to the non-professional audience which it targets.’
Andy Valdez-Tullett, Wessex Archaeology

Geology and Archæology of Berkshire is a 160-page paperback, and costs £9.99. Buy it from Waterstones via this link: https://www.waterstones.com/book/geology-and-archaeology-of-berkshire/john-firth/9781999819880

The last few years have been traumatic for Sebastian Metcalfe. Since the death of his wife, he’s often struggled to keep things together, drawing support from his friends, and comfort from the routines of his job at Cossleton College of Further Education. But now that his post as its Vice-Principal is under threat, should he move away from the seaside town he’s made his home? And whether he stays or goes, isn’t it time to follow the advice of someone close to him, and ‘bloody well start living again’? Falling is the story of Seb’s journey back from despair and self-pity – and of the part he plays in uncovering a dark secret that will have a profound effect on everyone around him.

‘Stamped with the ring of truth, Falling is a paean to the heroism of an ordinary life.’ John Morton, writer/director of Twenty Twelve and W1A

Falling costs £7.99. Buy it from Waterstones via this link: https://www.waterstones.com/book/falling/mike-dixon/9781999819835

Going Nowhere, with text by Nick Freeth and colour photographs by Olivia Landsberg, is about places that have become disconnected from modern London: discarded parts of the capital’s infrastructure; once-crucial facilities that it’s outgrown; remnants of bold schemes that never quite came about. It tells their stories, examines their history and context, discovers what admirers and denigrators had to say about them, and seeks to convey their enduring ambience and character.

‘If you wondered how come London is full of stubs, dead ends and unfinished business, this book will explain how and why. A lovely take on our great city.’
Christian Wolmar, author of The Subterranean Railway, the story of the London Underground

Going Nowhere costs £9.99. Buy it from Waterstones via this link: https://www.waterstones.com/book/going-nowhere/nick-freeth/olivia-landsberg/9781999819828