Preparing for an upcoming family holiday in the Lakes, I looked to update my aging copy of The Good Guide To The Lakes by Hunter Davies with the latest edition. Except the “latest edition” came out in 2003 and now appears to be somewhat rare and increasingly pricey on the secondhand market. Searching around, I found this entertaining article by Davies, describing how he got out of the self-publishing business and flogged his independent concern, along with the Good Guide, to Frances Lincoln (who also happens to publish the revised Wainwright guides). In the absence of an imminently forthcoming new edition, it looks like we’ll be taking the The Rough Guide to the Lake District (4th ed., May 2007) with us. I might pick up a copy of the last Good Guide if I find one in a dusty corner of a gift shop somewhere.

I did buy a used copy of Davies’s classic A Walk Around The Lakes (1993) via Abebooks though.