3 4 Friday: Out and About with buggies, children and Flora Thompson's younger sister...

As well as books for cycling around this beautiful part of the world, we do a fairly mean collection of local walking books. So today's Friday selections include two fabulous new walking guides for families - and one book deeply rooted in the heritage of Oxfordshire.

All this week, we have been working Kate, our work-experience student, extremely hard in the heat - and here are her reviews of the first two new titles:

Kiddiwalks in Oxfordshire, Ruth Paley (Countryside Books, £9.99, PB)
"Kiddiwalks has come up with an amazing guide to the best child friendly places in Oxfordshire. All 20 of the walks are simple, short and stimulating; like all walks should be. Each walk will help you see what a beautiful place the Oxfordshire countryside is."

Buggy Friendly Walks in the Thames Valley, Catharine Gregory
(Countryside Books, £7.95, PB)
"Catharine Gregory has come up with 20 breathtakingly beautiful places in the Thames Valley that vary from lovely riverside walks to delightful ones along country lanes. These walks are most suited for new parents and their children in mind, investigated and tested by the writer and her family."

If you are out and about in the Oxfordshire countryside, a new publication from Wychwood Press 'More Tales from Lark Rise' brings into publication for the first time the childhood memoirs of Betty Timms - younger sister of Flora Thompson. Including a beautiful account of (appropriately enough) Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 1897, the early success of her writing likely influenced Flora in later year. Read more here...

And finally, if you are interested in book local to Abingdon, you may want to take a look at our curated Mostly Books Abingdon Collection.

Have a lovely weekend!

More Tales from Lark Rise by Betty Timms

Betty Timms was born in 1886 in the North Oxfordshire village of Juniper Hill. She was the younger sister of Flora Thompson, the author of the trilogy 'Lark Rise to Candleford'.

The Timms family were certainly blessed with literary talent. Like Flora, Betty became an accomplished writer, best known for her children's book 'The Little Grey Men of the Moor', published in 1926. Its success may have inspired Flora to write her novels.

After Betty's death a draft typescript for an autobiographical novel was discovered among her possessions: it forms the body of this book and recalls a childhood spent in the villages of Juniper Hill (Lark Rise in Flora's books) and Cottisford. Schools days, holidays, celebrations, working days, evenings in the poublic house and afternoons in the cottages are all described in detail. Flora described the 1880s, Betty gives us a portrait of the 1890s and includes the Queen's Jubilee.

Betty's observations and new stories cast fresh light on the Timms family life. A number of characters can be recognised as those who appear in Lark Rise. Queenie is a notable example. Betty develops the lives of some very interesting individuals into wonderful cameos, seen through the eyes of a child growing up among them.

Betty's stories will undoubtedly delight those who were echanted by Lark Rise. All will be spellbound when they peep into the pin-a-sight that she has so lovingly created for us.
This book is currently exclusive to a number of independent bookstores, and can be ordered directly from Mostly Books:

£9.99 at Mostly Books (£12 with postage within UK):

UK price (inc postage)£12.00 GBP Outside UK (inc postage)£15.00 GBP