In the original dustsheet. Red cloth binding with silver title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

“Great British Bus Journeys” travels to Britain’s most unfashionable towns (using the least reliable method of transport) to uncover the nation’s secret history. Starting on a green bus in Leeds, the city of his birth, and culminating atop the number 94 as it swooshes past Trafalgar Square, David McKie reclaims British towns from the embarrassment and neglect for which they are famed. From Frinton-on-Sea to Bradwell-juxta-Mare, McKie rescues cities and villages from the condescension of snobbish urbanites.

Reviews:

• It’s a great shame that this is now out of print; but it is still available second-hand. It’s a ramble through Britain taken wholly on public bus transport, and is a worthy successor to Hillaby’s Journey Through Britain in the Sixties, in a tradition going back right through to Celia Fiennes in the 17th century. Descriptive, discursive and informative, full of little-known facts and stories. Recommend it.

• Great British Bus Journeys manages a new angle on a much visited theme – travelling around Britain. The buses are fairly incidental but their inclusion provides a realistic and fond introduction to the foibles of that unsung but quite sociable mode of transport. The stories about each ‘unfamous place’ visited are based on research. That could be tedious, as there are loads of travel books out there repeating the same old stuff. However, even cynical old me found these strange tales fascinating and mostly new. Well worth a read. He by no means covered the whole country so there’s plenty of scope for sequels!

• An amazingly good read. Would thoroughly recommend it. Not just for bus travellers as he gives an interesting account of all the towns and villages he visits. The kind of book you can pick up any time. Maybe for the older reader, 50 plus.

 The Author –  DAVID MCKIE joined the Guardian newspaper in 1965 and was deputy editor from 1975 to 1984. He now writes the ‘Elsewhere’ and ‘Smallweed’ columns for the paper and is author of Jabez: The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Rogue, Great British Bus Journeys, and McKie’s Gazeteer: a Local History of Britain, all published by Atlantic Books.