DG24015 Walks in Shakespeare Country 1989 V01 070824

Link below to a PDF copy of  the "Walks in Shakespeare Country Book"below 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VvTfiC2qiAf1XY555xANij4uEx9e4Bp6/view?usp=sharing

As a Writer and Publisher, I remain truly amazed at the speed in which a popular genre in the books industry can suddenly appear and then just as suddenly disappear due to changes in Information Technology. The concern is without the digital capture and sharing of a book like this one the fact they ever existed will never be recorded and archived. Their very existence will not be known about by future generations.

So what do we mean by genre. A genre is a category or classification used by a group of works based upon shared characteristics, themes or styles. The particular book genre here is independently published walking guidebooks covering the period 1985 to 2005. The trigger point to the development of this genre in 1985 was the arrival of cost effective and capable personal computers for home use with effective word processing applications. Without the existence of digital cameras and digital maps (late 1990’s) along with the nonexistence of effective digital image processing software the maps, diagrams and pictures in these books were hand drawn in pen and ink. They were then just literally cut and pasted (real scissors and real glue) into the word processors printed on paper text book master. Although some like me had started to use the Ventura Publishing, Desktop Publishing Package (DTP) released running on a GEM frontend and DOS operating system only later moving to Windows. I was lucky owning a very early Tandon PC running GEM which I had purchased from my very enterprising Chinese friend, Boon Leng, importing and selling them from his garage in Redditch.  Authors of these walking guides often located a gifted artist in the pen and ink medium to create the imagery they included in their books having written the text. In my case it is often this artistry within these books that appeals to me rather than the walks themselves. Pencil and pen and ink drawings have always held my fascination for artwork.

 

Then having established the genre of walking guide books they just as suddenly disappeared and stopped being published. Larger publishing businesses, but not the very large, had taken on board some of the authors of these guides and looked to establish a national brands for them. So “Family Walks” (circa 1992) by Scartin Books, Cromford, Derbyshire built up over 30 books in a standard style using photographs in the books. Now a secondhand bookshop in Matlock, Peak District, its to my knowledge no longer a book publisher.  Similarly Countryside Books , Newbury, Berkshire founded in 1976 with their Waterside Walks Series adopted a similar style and approach. Both still retained hand drawn maps and a few pen and ink sketches to uphold the genre. In fact Countryside books is still (2024) active in selling Walking Guide books.

So why did they then suddenly disappear.

Well from say 2005 the internet became more widely accessible and websites started offering digital maps and trail information that could be kept more “ real time” than was possible with the timescales required by the book printing and publishing processes. A change to a walk could be instantly communicated. Then from 2007 with the release of the Apple Smartphone offering portable digital maps and navigation apps destroyed the demand for walking guide books apart from the die hard book enthusiasts. From 2010 onwards there was a proliferation of dedicated apps for hiking, walking and outdoor activities and the fact these could now be carried in your pocket accelerated the decline of physical guide books. The fact that physical printed guide books could become quickly out of date with their content really determined their fast demise. The linking of these new Smartphone apps into the Social Media world at the same time as smartphone photography becoming so effective really defined the end for these printed walking guide books. In fact the new generation of walkers had often never seen these old walking guide books with them quickly becoming viewed as a product of antiquity occasionally found in Charity Book Shops for a few pounds.      

 

So back to this 20 year period between 1985 to 2005 in which the printed book walking guide was to develop and flourish.  This book walking guide genre developed its own unique style and typical content listed below. Early ones were truly independently produced by a walking enthusiast come author but over time larger publishing businesses, although never the very large ones, looked to build up lists of books traded under specific branding.

      Content

1.    A high level map showing all the walks in the area normally indexed

2.    Individual walks having a geographical map showing the location and route

3.    A description of the undertaking the walk itself

4.    Relevant local history covering people and places

5.    Pen and ink sketches of sights seen on the walk, often buildings

6.    Diagrams in support of knowledge transfer about things on the walk

7.    Normally just black and white printing no colour apart from the cover

8.    No photographs but sketches instead by a local artist

9.    Details of local businesses, public houses, hotels and B&B’s etc

10. Car parking locations 

 

Each walking guidebook had its strengths and weaknesses based upon the author’s abilities and knowledge plus that of the local artist. This particular guide, Walks in Shakespeare Country by Joe Taylor and Chas Cook with artist Jenny Taylor, scores very highly in the historical text content. It reads like an excellent history book relevant to the walk. Like my view of all the written descriptions of the walks this suffers from getting you quite confused. Describing a walk is a particularly difficult thing to do with my preference for just  outlining what can be viewed  at the marked waypoints on the map of the walk.

A PDF copy of the original book is linked to above from this blog but by you using it you are subject to my normal Copyright statement below.

Publisher Copyright of  “Walks in Shakespeare Country” is acknowledged as the Thornhill Press whilst author copyright belongs to Joe Taylor and Chas Cook.

DMB Publishing the Digital Publisher of this digitised copy operates on a strictly non for profit base, whilst it is shared here strictly under a Creative Commons 4.0 Licence defined by CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed. The copyright owners are acknowledged and if there is any objection to this digitised copy being shared the content will be immediately removed from the internet. The sole objective of its publication on the internet is to raise public awareness of this publication whilst ensuring its retention for posterity so future generations can have access to its content.

This is not a currently published book offered for sale with this ceasing from a publishers perspective over 25 years ago.

It should be noted second hand copies are readily on sale on internet second hand book web sites starting from £4 (Date : 070824) and you are encouraged to buy a copy to avoid their destruction or going to landfill. We need to retain books as important historic artefacts to be retained for use by future generations.