It’s not often that we feel compelled to essentially offer advertising copy for another publication, but we’ve fallen in love with Time Out’s Country Walks Volume 1, a compendium of 53 walks (one for each week of the year plus one reserve) within a short distance of London.

The country walks listed in the book were honed over several years by an informal group of London area walking enthusiasts. The book, originally edited by Nicholas Albery and first published in 1997, is quite palpably a labor of love. Suggestions for lunch and tea are made for each walk. Length of walks, transportation information, and a toughness scale for each walk give prospective a sense of what to expect.

We admire the volume’s sheer enthusiasm and attention to detail—sections on lyme disease, the suggestion that walkers invest in “a compass with a swivelling rim marked in degrees,” maps, and its careful descriptions of walks and potential hazards (”exclamation marks in square brackets —[!]— mean ‘pay careful attention to the route here, it is easy to go wrong’”) are all super informative and helpful.

There’s also a second volume, which we haven’t yet checked out.

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