Stuart Montgomery

Walking in and Around Slough Stuart Montgomery

This book describes a series of walks in and around the borough of Slough, in south-east England. In spite of the town's generally unromantic reputation, good walking routes do exist and some of them are surprisingly attractive - in places, at least. The book aims to introduce them not only to regular walkers, but also to people who have never tucked trouser into sock or thermos into backpack. The routes are mainly themed around different aspects of local history or culture, and reflect an eclectic and unstuffy attitude toward heritage. So, while there is space for "apparently venerable stuff like castles, churches and old (or even olde) pubs", the themes also include puppet TV shows, grimy waterways, brick-making yards, eccentric pagan people, posh schools, prostitutes and punk rock writers. The author has lived in the town for 25 years and used to run a travel company that sent groups of walkers to many attractive destinations in Europe (though not to Slough itself).