The A303: Highway to the Sun - Softcover

Fort, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1471186091 ISBN 13: 9781471186097

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2019

Synopsis

The A303 is more than a road. It is a story. One of the essential routes of English motoring and the road of choice to the West Country for thousands of holidaymakers the A303 recalls a time when the journey was an adventure and not simply about getting there. In this fully revised and updated edition Tom Fort gives voice to the stories this road has to tell from the bluestones of Stonehenge Roman roads and drovers paths to turnpike tollhouses mad vicars wicked Earls and solstice seekers the history geography and culture of this road tells a story of an English way of life.

About this title

Review:

'Tom Fort's book, named for a well-used English road, is a smoother ride: elegantly written, with a dry humour and an eyebrow raised at the failed "smart solutions" of transport ministers. His object is to reveal the special beauty of the landscape, particularly Salisbury Plain and Stonehenge (pictured). Mr Fort is a charming and knowledgeable guide, who can people the hills with shepherds, and the manors and rectories with eccentric antiquarians; who can tell you about an ancient system for flooding water meadows or the common names of chalk-loving flowers and butterflies. It is enough to make Wiltshire your next holiday destination' (The Economist)

'An epic journey to the South-West. The A303 is a road like no other, a route that has become part of the English way of life...Fort highlights its enduring appeal' (Independent)

'This is a brave book...Fort has an eye for the quirky, the absurd, the pompous and a style that, like the road, is always on the move' (Sunday Telegraph)

'Delightful, nostalgic, slyly witty, perceptive...a wonderfully charming book' (The Spectator)

'A lovely book...At last someone has celebrated the romance of a British road' (Guardian)

'A nostalgic experience, informative, humorous, charming, but pervaded by the bittersweet scent of regret' (Daily Mail)

About the Author:

Tom Fort was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1978 he joined the BBC in London where he worked in the BBC Radio newsroom for 22 years. He lives in South Oxfordshire with his wife and two of his children and has been travelling up and down the A303 for over five decades.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1471186091
• ISBN 13: 9781471186097
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384