Part of Bradt's distinctive, award-winning series of 'Slow' travel guides to UK regions, the new, thoroughly updated second edition of Bradt's Somerset (Slow Travel) celebrates this charming, popular English county. Expert travel writer and local resident Norm Longley blends visitor information, history, culture and anecdote with coverage of wildlife, birdwatching, walking, cycling and other outdoor activities, making this guide perfect for visitors and locals alike. Accommodation and restaurants - plus local food and cider - feature prominently: Longley himself often spends weekends 'roaming the Somerset countryside in search of exciting and/or novel things to do - or at the very least, hunting down good food and drink'.
Somerset is consistently seductive: windswept marshes and wild moorland, enchanting uplands and iron-flat lowlands, limestone gorges and a forty-mile long stretch of coast with rocky coves, fossil-filled cliffs and a tiny island. And, of course, there's Bath, a UNESCO World Heritage city with beautifully preserved Roman baths, graceful Georgian architecture and enticing gastronomic possibilities.
Bradt's Somerset (Slow Travel) explores all this and more, from the world-famous Glastonbury Festival to the American Museum and Gardens, carnivals to quirky local customs, the longest heritage railway in Britain to England's first designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Somerset Levels feature, as do the Quantock and Blackdown Hills, the coast, and east and south Somerset. There's a seasoning of legend and myth too, from King Arthur at Avalon and Camelot to the country's third-largest complex of standing stones at Stanton Drew.
Divided into seven easy-to-explore geographical regions, from Bath and north Somerset through Wells and the Mendips to Exmoor National Park and International Dark Sky Reserve, this is an indispensable companion for everyone from culture devotees to outdoor adventurers, birders to beach lovers, transport enthusiasts to event-goers, families to foodies. As well as being extensively updated throughout, this new edition features an expanded selection of walking itineraries, details of Crewkerne and Chard, deeper coverage of local produce (including cheese), and wider treatment of wildlife, arts, culture, history and wet-weather activities. The result provides an entertaining armchair read alongside a practical guide to exploring this rewarding county.
Norm Longley (normlongley.com) was brought up in Somerset, attending schools in Yeovil and the Quantocks. After a fifteen-year hiatus - albeit still returning on a regular basis to see family and friends and the occasional Yeovil Town game - he moved back to his home county in 2009, where he has lived ever since. With his family he often spends weekends roaming the Somerset countryside in search of exciting and/or novel things to do - or at the very least, hunting down good food and drink. He has been a guidebook writer for more than 20 years, and is the author of Bradt's guides to South Wales and Montenegro, and has written or co-written a suite of Rough Guides. He has written for The Guardian and Independent.
