The Berko Loop

The Berko Loop
by Kevin Exley
£15, available from Number Twenty and www.theberkoloop.co.uk.
Taking in a loop – as the name suggests – round Berkhamsted, starting at the top of New Road (by the golf club), through Frithsden, The Amaravati monastery, past Ashridge and Northchurch common, along the Grand Union Canal to Cholesbury, Hawridge, Bourne End and Little Heath Farm, this is a fabulous book.

It claims to show you places you didn’t know existed, and gives you lots of information along the way. I read it from cover to cover, nodding as I recognised familiar places, while also wondering how I’d missed some of these amazing places in all the years I’ve lived in Berko.

The writing is great – witty and entertaining as well as being informative – and it’s made me want to go and get my bike out and take a pedal round the 30-mile route one day soon. Hopefully I’ll see you there!