A good read

A Cotswold Village by Joseph Arthur Gibbs

In 1892, Joseph Arthur Gibbs left his family banking firm in London and headed for the Cotswolds. Swapping the role of high-flying financier for that of the sports-loving country squire, he settled at Ablington Manor.

A Cotswold Village, first published in 1898 but reissued again this year, is Gibbs' hymn of praise to the Cotswolds. To him it was a paradise where he could enjoy his hunting, shooting, fishing and cricket, and his love for the place oozes out of his elegant prose. But more than that, this book offers a fascinating insight into the social workings of the Cotswolds in late Victorian times.

To modern sensibilities, Gibbs' comments on the lower orders might sound a tad patronising. The following passage is typical:

"As to the morals of the Gloucestershire peasants, and of our village in particular, it may be said that they are on the whole excellent; in one respect only they are rather casual, not to say prehistoric."

Gibbs then immediately goes on to tell the tale of a local man whose wife has given birth less than nine months after wedlock. When the village parson goes to talk to the man about his moral laxity, the husband replies 'Yaas; 'twere a bad job to be sure. And what will yer take to drink?"

But for all its Victorian quaintness, A Cotswold Village is an ideal, masterfully crafted read for anyone seeking a glimpse into village life in the Cotswolds of the 1890s.

A Cotswold Village is published by Nonsuch, priced £10

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A Victorian Rector and Nine Old Maids - 100 Years of Cotswold Village Life by Michael Boyes

Poor Revd Robert Le Marchant, the 19th century rector of a parish near Bourton-on-the-Water, certainly had his hands full.

The Victorian man of the cloth sired nine girls and then, in a life somewhat reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice, had a decidedly difficult time in trying to marry them off.

A Victorian Rector and Nine Old Maids is local history written as it should be. By examining the life of the second half of the 19th century through the eyes of one family, Michael Boyes offers an account of the period that is both personal and informative.

The Revd Boyce served as rector of Little Rissington for 52 years. In the course of those five decades he and his wife, Eliza, raised 15 children, while he personally confronted many of the problems of Victorian England.

He helped the poor, worked to fight an outbreak of typhoid in Bourton in the 1870s, and tried to find eligible men for his unconventional - and sometimes headstrong - daughters.

The following extract from a letter he wrote to one of them, 31-year-old Emma, is typical, and conveys Le Marchant's paternal woes. "You heed not ill reports of others and repeat only the good... you would make an excellent wife ... honoured and respected by all, a favourite sister, a beloved mistress - can you be more in a household?" But he adds mournfully: "Youth is passing by rapidly."

Boyes has evidently gone to great lengths to track down diaries, photographs and records to compile this book. And his labours are not in vain, for the book offers an engaging glimpse into life in a 19th century Cotswold village.

A Victorian Rector and Nine Old Maids - 100 Years of Cotswold Village Life is published by Phillimore and Co, priced £25

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Sheep in the Cotswolds - The Medieval Wool Trade by Derek Hurst

The Cotswolds are an enchanting place to live. And that enchantment, believe it or not, derives in no small part from just one thing - wool.

The great buildings and market places of the area were built off the profits of the medieval wool trade, while sheep farming helped shape the look of the green and pleasant landscape that rolls all around us today.

Thanks to wool the Cotswolds became a place of prosperity in medieval times and the centre of a continental trade network. From the fields and markets of Tetbury, Winchcombe, Stow-on-the-Wold, Northleach, Cirencester and Moreton-in-the-Marsh, wool would be sent onto the medieval weavers of Flanders and Italy where it was made into top quality cloth.

And as archaeologist Derek Hurst shows in Sheep in the Cotswolds - The Medieval Wool Trade, such was the power of the substance that it was even behind wars. When the medieval kings of England wanted to wage a military campaign but were short of cash, the taxes on wool would often go up. And so the wool would fund war.

In the light of this, it's no wonder that some people of the Middle Ages got so excited about the substance. The early 15th century poet John Gower's affection for wool appears to have bordered on the erotic. To him, wool was "that noble lady, goddess of the merchants... so nice, so white, so soft".

Next time you pull on your woolly jumper before heading out for a stroll over the Cotswolds, just remember what a debt we owe to this warm, comforting textile.

Sheep in the Cotswolds - The Medieval Wool Trade is published by Tempus, priced £17.99

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The Road to Timbuktu - Down the Niger on the Trail of Mungo Park by Tom Fremantle

As any seasoned traveller will tell you, your companions are almost as important as your destination in determining the success of a trip.

So travel writer Tom Fremantle must have known he was in for an interesting time when he opted to travel through west Africa with little more than his rucksack, a canoe, a stubborn ox and a donkey called Che for company.

Written in an easy, engaging style, The Road to Timbuktu is Fremantle's account of an odyssey along the River Niger, a journey which took him in the footsteps of the Georgian explorer Mungo Park. Park landed in Africa in 1795 and struck out on foot to discover the course of the river. This book is Fremantle's homage to Park, and an intriguing look at the habits and histories of west Africa's countries.

In the course of his trip down the Niger, Fremantle - a former Cirencester-based journalist on the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard - encounters camel stuntmen, Senegalese prostitutes, and tribal chiefs in Mali. He camps with Bedouin in the desert, swaps tales with fisherman and avoids lively hippos.

The Road to Timbuktu is Fremantle's third travel book, and proof that he still has a wonderful knack for picking up quirky stories and getting in awkward scrapes. But it also brings vividly to life the ambitions, hopes and fears of west African people, and highlights many of the continent's social issues, such as the divide between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.

Tom Fremantle is indeed the ideal travel guide and companion.

The Road to Timbuktu - Down the Niger on the Trail of Mungo Park is published in paperback by Constable, priced £7.99