Long Road from Jarrow – A jopurney through Britain then and Now by Stuart Maconie. Published by Ebury Press. £16.99

In October 1936 two hundred men, youths and MP Ellen Wilkinson walked from their home town of Jarrow to Westminster to protest about mass unemployment, closure of the Jarrow shipyards and extreme poverty in their community.

Eighty years later journalist and BBC 6 Music presenter Stuart Maconie made the same journey covering the same daily distances and on the same dates that the walkers had done; twenty two days and 283 miles of walking in total.

Travelling down the country’s eastern spine – from the established yet evolving sites of Leeds, Sheffield and London, to the quiet corners, industrial hamlets and hidden suburbia of Ferryhill, Barnsley, Bedford and Edgeware – Stuart takes in the entertaining, sad and stirring stories from the streets, pubs, cafes and curry houses en-route.

Weaving together a collective story of modern England and its people – from the young political campaigner at a Jeremy Corbyn rally in Jarrow, to anti-austerity weekends in Darlington, and a Barnsley cabbies’ history of the Miners’ strike, Stuart highlights the natural contradictions; the poverty and affluence, natural beauty and urban blight, revival and decline – that lie at the heart of modern Britain.

During his journey he meets some individuals who remembered the marchers from 1936 plus also a number of their descendants. He also visits the halls, churches and cafes that the men used during their long walk for overnight accommodation and meals.

I have been a big fan of Stuart’s writing for over a decade now, absorbing during this time some classic books of his – Cider with Roadies, Pies and Prejudice and Adventures on the High Teas all of which looked at life in various parts of England. This latest book visits some of his previous haunts but also takes Stuart into new territories, particularly from Sheffield southwards through the Midlands and into the home counties.

Stuart looks at how things have changed in the places he visits over the last 80- years but also states that “The thirties in some ways start to look very much like today – once you wipe away the snot and the coal dust”. A great read and one I can highly recommend.

Walking in the Yorkshire Dales: South and West by Dennis and Jan Kelsall. Published by Cicerone Books. £12.95

This book contains 44 walks from Wharfedale, Littondale, Malhamdale, Dentdale and Ribblesdale and follows on from their previous book of walks in the North and East of the Yorkshire Dales. It includes seven walks that I described in the first three chapters of my “6 Dales – 30 Walks” book published by Sigma in 2015, but there are many others that I have walked in these areas over the last fifty years that Dennis and Jan have also included.

They are seasoned walkers, writers and photographers and the 44 walks that they have selected range from 3.5 miles around Attermire above Settle to 23 miles for someone who wishes to tackle the 3 Peaks in one day in the Ribblehead chapter. The book is divided into six chapters; Lower Wharfedale, Upper Wharfedale, Littondale, Malhamdale, Dentdale and Ribblesdale and range from 4 walks in the Littondale chapter to 8 in the Ribblesdale one.

As well as the walks themselves, the book also contains chapters on the Evaluation of the Landscape, Plants and Wildlife, the area covered by the walks, the Yorkshire Dales National Park, Practicalities and How to use the guide. The text, maps and photographs are all very concise and my only criticism of the book is that some of the walks start or finish partway down a page and the next walk carries on from there on the same page. By enlarging or reducing some of the photos or realigning of the text these could have been made to fit so that each walks started on its own separate page.

Apart from this minor blemish, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will be using it to cover some of the walks I have either not done before or where it has been several decades since I last trod some of these “broad acres” of Yorkshire.

Walking on the Amalfi Coast by Gillian Price. Published by Cicerone Books - £14.95

This is another of Cicerone’s foreign travel guides and visits one of the most popular tourist destinations in Italy which is dominated by some magnificent sea cliffs and inland by the Monti Lattari, the mountainous backbone soring to spectacular heights behind Sorrento.

The book contains 32 walks in 5 main regions; The Island of Ischia, its more well know neighbour Capri, Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi. Many of the walks have dramatic scenic views down onto the azure blue Tyrrhenian Sea.

In addition to the walks themselves there are chapters on Flowers and Plants, Wildlife, Exploring and bases, Getting there, Getting Around, When to Go, Accommodation, Culinary Delights, What to Take, Maps and Emergencies plus How to use the Guide. Distances for the walks range from 3 kilometres (1.8 miles) to 11 kilometres (7 miles). The walks are also graded from 1 to 3 with 1 being easy and 3 being fairly strenuous.

Gillian Price, travel writer and photographer, now lives in Venice with her Italian husband Nicloa and knows Italy intimately. She recommends Spring and Autumn for the best time to walk in this area as Summer can be somewhat overpowering as I found out personally whilst there at the end of August when the temperatures were still in the mid-thirties.

The walk descriptions are good and as well as the routes themselves, Gillian also includes a plethora of information about the history of the area. If you are visiting the Amalfi coast out of the main summer season and would like to include a walk or two whilst on holiday this is certainly a great guide to take with you to enjoy.