So the A30 would terminate on the A375, only to mysteriously reappear some 25 miles later having multiplexed with the A375, A35, and M5? Fort is uncomfortable with modern motoring (for the tv series which was the progenitor to this, he travelled the road in a Morris Minor) and it's clear he prefers reflecting back n the golden age of motor travel pre-M1, rather than the modern behmoth.

I've spent enough time driving from London to the south-west to know that A303: Highway to the Sun (BBC4) was in breach of the trade descriptions act. I have travelled the A303 many times but not given too much thought to the history around it except for Stonehenge. trouble with this approcah is it overloads the M5 between 25 and 29 and also once you are on the M5 at Taunton there is not much point in cutting back across to Ilminster, you might as well stay on the M5 to the M4 to get to London. As a native of Wessex in my younger days I enjoyed reading about some old haunts and while the topic of Stonehenge is probably a little overemphasised it is so totemic of the A303 the author had little choice. This hasn't always been on friendly terms - for example, when it's jammed and no alternative routes can be found - but for the most part, we've found it to be a pleasant and (relatively) interesting highway.

All the stories are threaded together by the A303 and they're beguiling, but I'd have liked more of the present-day people, like Annie and her famous tea bar. Fort gets down on his hands and knees to decipher the ancient lettering on ancient stones and reveal stories from the days of Ethelred. It crammed full of facts and stories about the people and places along this route and often delves into the politics of various government road building policies.

The A20 became a trunk road (London-Folkestone-Dover) in 1936; the A2 didn't become one (London-Canterbury-Dover) until 1946. The author takes a trip down the road from east to west, reflecting his description of it as the "highway to the sun" - that is, the route which started so many summer holidays in the south-west of England. Fort does not mention that the events prompted the creation, in a roundabout way, of Milton's Comus; I do, probably just to show off. If memory serves, the A303 drops it's end 3 and becomes the A30 from Honiton onwards further South West, the Honiton bypass and the 'new' A30 now are dual carriageway from there on to the M5 Junction at Exeter (near where the Met Office has moved to). M Godding Books Ltd is an internet book business running from Wiltshire and sending books all over the world every working day.The documentary felt it was thrown together without any purpose and Fort felt that his presentation style would mark him out as an eccentric. But I did not know a very great deal else that is here, and it is the millennia-spanning nature of the book that gives it its charm and point. So it covers a wide range of interests, but you will enjoy it more if you are familiar with the A303. I think if the A303 were to be diverted to meet the M5 at Taunton, which was the HA's favoured choice, then it is likely that Honiton to Exeter would become part of the A35. 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.