There's an infinite amount of material there as you could make programmes about every one of Britain's major trunk roads. Tom Fort's gentle, engaging book steers mostly clear of whimsy but it is a little nostalgic, and why not? 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. We knew the landmarks that measured its progress: maybe a pub sign, a red post-box, an old, sagging stone wall weighed down by ivy … Each delivered the same message. It was stop/start from the Ilminster bypass to halfway down Rawridge Hill, then 40 to Honiton and the D2.

I'm not aware of huge numbers of people getting terminally lost around Newcott because the A30 turns off to the right and they don't. He seeks out service stations and inns and turnpike toll houses; tells stories of dreadful crashes and highway robberies; of solstice seekers and Stonehenge; of Queen Guinevere and Sir Launcelot; of army camps and racing tracks; Battles and festivals; of churches, abbeys, farms, houses, burial mounds, trout fishermen and falconers. This is nothing more than a vanity project, which would be a complete waste of time and money, and would create far more problems and confusion than it would solve. Perhaps one number reflecting its old number except where there is a multiplex with an A road, whereby it would become that road's number.Interesting book around the A303 road which for anyone based in the east or south east of England is the main route to Devon and Cornwall. He was very pleased and intrigued to receive it as a Christmas gift, and looked forward to reading it.

Tom Fort’s latest book begins with the premise that holidays, while supposedly among our most cherished memories, are often eclipsed by the journeys involved in getting to our destinations, in Fort’s experience this being westwards down the A303. Furthermore, if those who decide the allocations of the real and unreal are cruel, mad or colossally wrong, what then?In this fully revised and updated edition, Tom Fort gives voice to the stories this road has to tell, from the bluestones of Stonehenge, Roman roads and drovers paths to turnpike tollhouses, mad vicars, wicked Earls and solstice seekers, the history, geography and culture of this road tells a story of an English way of life. The author provides a potted history of strategic landmarks and towns along the route, from early Britons to Saxons, Romans and Normans; famous legends surrounding King Arthur (Cadbury Castle alleged to be Camelot) and Stonehenge; the clashes between the political will of various governments, the motorists and the environmentalists that have caused such a 'mish-mash' of road development generally and how this has impacted on the A303; but also has taught me things that I never knew, such as the use of water meadows and the role of the Drowner and the use of flocks of Wiltshire Horn sheep, the meat and fleece of which were both at best average, merely as providers of fertiliser for the arable crop fields by the use of their dung! a friendly bed-and-breakfast [which provided] fig jam with my toast" [p274]) and some didactic asides (I didn't know that the Cretaceous period was named after the Latin for chalk [p41], for example). I loved the bits in this book about the villages and countryside, and I pretty much enjoyed the history and old tales of strange country folk and unusual goings on from various times in history. Fort's book concludes with a visit to Annie's Tea Bar, situated at the very end of the A303 where it rejoins its "old rival", the A30, where he enjoys a full English breakfast and a chat with the proprietor, Annie.