101 Beautiful Small Towns in Great Britain »

Tom Aiken is a writer, poet, editor, theater director, musician, and critic. A cultural historian of Britain and Europe, he is a past winner of the Lincoln Memorial Essay award, author of two young adult novels, and has contributed to the Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, and The Spectator.

A sequel to the highly successful One Hundred & One Beautiful Small Towns in Italy and One Hundred & One Beautiful Small Towns in France, this book is a unique photographic tour of the most beautiful towns in every region of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. The towns of Britain’s countryside are among the most charming and unchanged in Europe’s history. Readers will want to roam the countryside: from the Norman castle towns of the southeast to the spectacular Roman architecture of Bath and St. Albans, and from Celtic cottage farms in the Scottish lowlands to the stone and iron towns of the Welsh borders and the north, One Hundred & One Beautiful Small Towns in Great Britain is as much about the history of the Isles as it is about their beauty today. Tom Aiken’s eloquent and informative text not only draws attention to aesthetic, natural, and architectural points of interest in every region, but also brings to life the history of each place, from Shakespeare’s Stratford-on-Avon to the royal Cowes, the monastic abbeys of Yorkshire to prehistoric Ireland, and from the Pagan past of the Scottish Highlands to the legends of Roman Britain. A thorough appendix provides travel tips and details and locations for hotels, restaurants, and shops of interest in all the towns. Whether you’re an armchair traveler or an Anglo-phile planning yet another trip, this volume is the guide to the varied heritage and hidden treasures of Britain.

Abergavenny Aberystwyth Aldeburgh Ambleside Armagh Ayr Bamburgh Barnstaple Bath Beaumaris Berwick Upon-Tweed Beverley Bradford On-Avon Burford Bury St. Edmunds Buxton Caernarfon Cambridge Canterbury Cardigan Carlisle Cheltenham Chester Chichester Chipping Campden Chipping Norton Cirencester Colchester Conwy Cowes Derry Dorchester Durham Eastbourne Enniskillen Exeter Gloucester Guildford Harrogate Hastings Haworth Helmsley Helston Hereford Inverness Kendal Keswick Kingston Upon Hull Knighton Lancaster Lavenham Lerwick Lincoln Linlithgow Llandrindod Wells Llandudno Llangollen Ludlow Masham Matlock Melrose Minehead Norwich Oban Oxford Penrith Penzance Perth Pitlochry Poole Ripon Rochester Rye Salisbury Scarborough Sherborne Shrewsbury Southwold St. Albans St. Andrews St. David’s Stamford Stirling Stoke On-Trent Stornoway Stratford Upon-Avon Stromness Swaffham Tenby Tewkesbury Tobermory Truro Tunbridge Wells Warwick Wells Whitby Winchester Windsor Woodstock Worcester York