Saddled in my younger days with an ancient Morris Minor prone to overheating, I frequently found myself stranded in the most unlikely places with time on my hands, waiting for the engine to cool. So I began to explore wherever I was, trotting down country lanes, peering over garden walls and into people's windows, wandering along desolate urban thoroughfares and through grim industrial landscapes, wondering what went on behind the grand facades and closed gates and no entry signs and neat hedgerows. I discovered amazing facts and intriguing anecdotes of world renown hidden in lonely villages and isolated wild places, stories of romance and wonder in workaday streets, unexpected beauty in ugly places, and I began to understand that everywhere and anywhere in Britain, however mundane or ordinary, however unglamorous or neglected, has a story to tell.

The Author

Christopher Winn has been a freelance writer and trivia collector for over twenty years. He has worked with Terry Wogan and Jonathan Ross and sets quiz questions for television as well as for the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. His first book was the bestselling I Never Knew That About England. Books in the same series now cover the whole of Britain and Ireland. He is married to artist Mai Osawa, who illustrates all the books in the series. His website is christopherwinn.co.uk. Christopher latest books are I Never Knew That About Coastal England and The Book of Christmas and he is launching a new podcast series Christopher Winn’s I Never Knew That in 2021.