Customer Ratings:

• The Perfect Companion for the Curious Traveler. The late Prof. Cooper was my kind of tourist set loose in a car in England.

  He avoids the M roads and the A roads with single digits. He gives clear directions. He has an eye for the peculiar, the unique, the unsettling. But most of all, he s an enthusiast. He s read the greats and an astonishing quantity of not so great.

  He knew his Dickens and Kipling, although I wish he was still alive so I could tip him to something he didn t know about Kipling s sojourn in Rottingdean, Sussex, and its tangible connexion to today: Kipling s familiarity with England s first family of traditional songs, the Copper family. An American who hears Kipling s poetry in the settings of Peter Bellamy will have good reason to reappraise Kipling.

  I m leaving for Kent this week. After reading Cooper, I ll only be bringing him and Ordinance maps along. I won t need anything else.

• Literary Guide Middle England
• The Literary Guide and Companion to Northern England