The A303: Highway to the Sun

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What was interesting before this was opened the signing at J29 northbound on the M5 used to say M5 (M4) London and A30 (A303) London with the route confirmation sign at J30 given the different distances the A303 being approximately 25 miles shorther. Mr Fort does not get overly starry-eyed, he is dismayed by roadside rubbish and the very act of driving. For my input on the renumbering discussion whilst it would make sense in one hand I think most people would object, it's a road that goes from A to B and its name or number is academic. There's an abundance of information nuggets in this book, plotting an in depth history of the people and events along this 90 mile stretch of southern England. Where Fort's film surprised with its eccentricity, Britain's Most Wanted battered you with its dullness.

Fort's book takes the premise that British roads are like British people - steeped in history and secrets, a bit shambolic (a word I note that Apple's hideous transatlantic spellcheck doesn't understand), prone to let you down, slightly shabby, but that they eventually get there. At first it seemed as if Fort intended to show how the A303 has changed the landscape over the years. He sounds as if he can't wait to finish his account so that he can go fishing, which is what he enjoys most. A nostalgic experience, informative, humorous, charming, but pervaded by the bitter-sweet scent of regret' Daily Mail 'Fort has an eye for the quirky, the absurd, the pompous and a style that, like the road, is always on the move' Sunday Telegraph 'A lovely book. Ancient woods lay across the summits of the downs and prehistoric monuments and sites are everywhere, the evidence of ancient habitation and worship left in abundance.

He's also uneasy on the politics - although like all right thinking people he despises the Clarksons of this world with their self-centred me-go-faster notions, but he doesn't posit solutions, merely lays bare the dilemmas we seem incapable as a nation of solving.

I loved the bits in this book about the villages and countryside, and I pretty much enjoyed the history and old tales of strange country folk and unusual goings on from various times in history. It's a history too, and that's interweaved with the landmarks and brought to life with some very interesting potted biographies.Tom Fort gives voice to the stories this road has to tell, from the bluestones of Stonehenge to Roman roads and drovers paths, to turnpike tollhouses, mad vicars, wicked Earls and solstice seekers, the history, geography and culture of this road tells a story of an English way of life. There was little real active hunting for villains – apart from one Keystone Cops moment when the squad car chasing a suspect managed to lose the bus he was travelling on.

For those who will never drive the A303, it explains beautifully how our road system came to be the way that it is. Having built a new road from Ilminster to the M5, the HA and local councils are likely to want to discourage through traffic from using the old route. We take pride in offering a wide selection of used books, from classics to hidden gems, ensuring there is something for every literary palate. Unfortunately John Holdsworth's documentary was ruined by the decision to use Tom Fort, a self-styled 'eccentric' as presenter. Furthermore, if those who decide the allocations of the real and unreal are cruel, mad or colossally wrong, what then?What I'd really have liked is a map, telling me where to find the historical tales in the text, so I could shove the book in the glovebox and refer to it en route, safely pulled over of course. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Interesting book around the A303 road which for anyone based in the east or south east of England is the main route to Devon and Cornwall. Wincanton is one of the few towns to be twinned with a fictional place, Ankh-Morpork from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I particularly enjoyed seeing the 18th Century folly to King Alfred, the historic intersection of the Ridgeway and Harrow paths (memories of the unforgettable Ridgeway Path 1970s Public Information Film) and the Fosse Way continuation of the A303.

At times though the charm can be a bit thin on the ground and the stories dry up a bit: maybe they just don't exist, I don't know, but accounts of 1970s Transport Policy don't always feel like worthy replacements. I'm talking Iain Sinclair and Andy Sharp and Gareth E Rees and Paul Devereux, many others of that ilk. For me, and I am sure many others, it has always been, and is now, if not a highway to the sun, at least a highway to a windy beach, with a good few sights along the way. Compared to the bland and brazen utility of, say, the M4, the A303 – which comes off the M3 at Basingstoke and runs down to Honiton in Devon – is a rich and magical road.The flesh-and-blood example of progress v nature here resides in the case of the great bustard, the world's heaviest flying bird and so, therefore, one of the most impractical, whose attempts to re-establish itself on Salisbury Plain, courtesy of the admirably quixotic Great Bustard Group, would seem to be doomed. Fort is rightfully scornful of Solstice Park, the industrial estate whose name sends me into paroxysms of rage when I drive past it.