Travelling partly on foot and bicycle, but chiefly in a plywood fifteen foot punt, Fort journeyed through the unsung heart of Middle England, showing him the unseen face of his own country.

Tom Fort read English at Balliol College, Oxford before going on to work as a reporter on a newspaper and then on to the BBC where he worked for over 20 years. He is married with five children and is the author of four other books. (Under the Weather published by Century and The Grass is Greener, The Far From Compleat Angler and The Book of Eels, published by Harper Collins).