Nick picks eight of the most interesting traveller-chroniclers to have explored and reported on the state of the nation from Gerald of Wales who embarked on a seven week journey around the wild perimeter of Wales in March 1188 to HV Morton, the journalist and travel writer who crossed the length and breadth of England by car in the 1920s. Others include Celia Fiennes who started her many journeys around Britain on horseback in the late 1600s at the age of 20, Tudor antiquarian John Leland, Daniel Defoe, William Cobbett, Thomas Pennant, and William Gilpin, who travelled through the north of England by boat in 1770.

Contents: 1. Gerald of Wales 1188 /Wales;2. John Leland 1534-43/England & Wales; 3. Celia Fiennes 1682-1712/England; 4. Daniel Defoe 1724-26/Britain;5. William Gilpin 1770-2/North England; 6. Thomas Pennant 1772/Wales & Scotland; 7. William Cobbett 1822-26/S England; 8. HV Morton 1927/England