Kent

"This is not a guidebook, nor is it a history. It is a combination of the two, and aims to describe how Kent came to look the way it does."

So writes Nigel Nicolson of Kent, a land typically represented as the Garden of England - small farms, oast houses and cottages clustering amidst orchards, hop laden gantries and woodland. Yet there is much more to Kent, it is a place of ambivalences and surprises. It is a land proud of its past; a land with which such names as Thomas Becket, Churchill, Dickens and Donne are associated; a land which counts amongst its architectural features, castles, cathedrals and manor houses. A fascinating and intimate tale of a county whose character and spirit have been fashioned by man and nature during its long and eventful history.