Fifty-five piers. Two weeks. One eccentric road trip.Before the seaside of their youth disappears forever, two friends from the landlocked Midlands embark on a peculiar journey to see all the surviving pleasure piers in England and Wales. With a clapped-out car and not enough cash, Jon and Danny recruit Midge, a man they barely know, to be their driver, even though he has to be back in a fortnight to sign on...Join Jon and Danny as they take a funny and nostalgic look at Brit...

As seen on This Time with Alan Partridge on BBC One.THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERPraise for Nomad:'Funniest book of the year' Sunday Telegraph'Alan Partridge's Nomad is almost certainly the funniest book ever written' Caitlin Moran'Sensationally funny. What brilliant writing' Richard Osman'Sensational' Jenny Colgan'Hilarious' Jon Ronson'Brilliantly...

Two women, two bikes, no backup on a Sea to Sea adventure.At the beginning of the twenty-first century two friends set off to cycle from coast to coast across England. For one, it was to be the first of many long distance cycle rides.Cycling Across England is an account of the fun, the food, the mountains, the moorlands and the mathematics the two friends encountered along the way. From the Irish Sea, through the mountains of Cumbria and the Pennine uplands they travelled thr...

‘Enthusiastic, pleasingly madcap’ GeographicalAdventure – something that’s new and exhilarating, outside your comfort zone. Adventures change you and how you see the world, and all you need is an open mind, bags of enthusiasm and boundless curiosity.Recommended for viewing on a colour tablet.So what’s a microadventure? It’s close to home, cheap, simple, short and 100% guaranteed to refresh your life. A microadventure takes ...

When the only gig Mark Wallingtons R&B band can get is in a nursing home they decide its time to call it a day. But then Mark discovers an instrument he might just have enough talent for the ukulele. Realising his dream of a nationwide tour, the Uke of Wallington sets off on a 42 night road trip, playing open mic sessions from Brighton to Cape Wrath. Probably the first rock and roll tour ever undertaken on public transport. Working his way through the British summer, he takes his music...

We were aware of a dreamlike quality to our trip. There was something far-fetched about it, something out of this world.Austerity might be getting everyone else down, but Steve is waving his worries goodbye on another of his light-hearted trips around the picturesque English waterways.This time it’s a bit different, though. This time he’s not just cruising with his cat, Kit, but with his long-suffering wife, Em, who’s given up work and wants her share of easy living too. The...

That strangest of traveller, the lone female, is at it again. This time cycling through the heart of England from Bath to London to her home in Lancashire. For such a small country England was proving to be a land of contrasts and surprises; from the leafy lanes of Berkshire to the bleak moorlands of the north, spectacular scenery and post-industrial mill towns, dead divas and murderous mad men.Throughout the six hundred mile cycle ride there was much that was quintessentially Engli...

A hilarious field guide to the world’s most remarkable and unusual creatures: the English.Thanks to television documentaries by Bruce Parry and David Attenborough, we are better acquainted with the hunting rituals of the San bushmen and the mating habits of Papua New Guinean tribes than we are with the everyday lives of that most peculiar of species – the English.Matt Rudd has been getting to know this curious breed, and now you’ll be able to spot the English in any number ...

Where do you call home?Performer Jane Clifton had a classic army brat upbringing, constantly on the move as the family followed the postings of her English officer father from Gibraltar to England, Germany to Malaysia and eventually to Australia. Always the new kid in town, Jane became adept at fitting in anywhere.As an adult, living in the fast-moving worlds of anti-war demos, women's lib, experimental theatre, rock 'n' roll, and TV, she kept up the...

Kate—a wife, a mother of two, and a senior executive at a multinational hotel company—has made caring for others her life's work, and she's good at it. But when she opens her husband's computer to find a series of email exchanges with an unknown woman, it all begins to fall apart. After ten years of marriage, Kate is forced to take a closer look at her relationship with her husband, and she must ask herself: How well do I really know him?Things begin to spiral at work, too,...

There are ways to begin walking Wainwright's Coast to Coast. Things that must be done. It's compulsory. It's written in the rules.First you must stride purposefully to the starting point. You must fill your lungs with a deep breath. You must have a photograph taken next to the sign, monument or obelisk that marks the beginning of the trail. And you must proclaim loudly and clearly to all who will listen... "And so it begins!"Of course it's best to do all that whilst there i...

Take one person and a rucksack, put them in a market town in West Yorkshire, and point them towards Windermere.If they've not instantly leaped in a car, hailed a cab or run to the train station, then chances are that they're doing the Dales Way.Andrew Bowden was one such person. And this is his tale.Fans of thrillers and romance need detain themselves here no further; those of a nervous disposition should look away now. But if you're after hiking, beer, viaducts and...