Above: Sacrificial Stone, Aligning with Giant’s Cave Above It from The Old Straight Track. The man is local photographer William McKaig, a friend of Watkins who drew the illustrations for the book.

It must just be coincidence that every other book I’ve read for a while has been set in Herefordshire; I’ve visited Hereford and Hay-on-Wye a few times but I have no special interest in the county, though it sounds very lovely – like England fifty years ago, someone recently told me.

1. The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins
The first book ever written about the existence of ley lines mostly takes places around Watkins’ beloved Herefordshire and its alignments of tracks, mounds, beacons, moats, sites and mark stones. Dismissed on its publication in 1925, and since described as the most misunderstood book of the 20th century, it received renewed attention in the 1960s with the hippy movement and John Mitchell’s publication of The Flying Saucer Vision (1967) and The View Over Atlantis in 1969, which cited The Old Straight Track as a key text and ley lines imbued with mythical energy connecting ancient Britain, which the pragmatic Victorian Watkins never mentions in the book (Watkins has no clear theory of ley lines, calling them practical tracks for merchants and traders). By the 1970s the book had taken on a life on its own, an inspiration both for landscape artists (Richard Long and Hamish Fulton) and writers (Ian Sinclair), which continues to this day (Robert Macfarlane). I personally found it a leaden read but enjoyed it as a photography book.

2. On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
The evocative tale of twin brothers who spend their entire lives on a farm in rural Wales is quite the change of pace for the normally nomadic Chatwin.

3. Kilvert’s Diary by Francis Kilvert
Mostly recorded in Herefordshire, Kalvert’s enchanting diary describes his rural life as a Victorian country clergyman. ‘One of the best books in English’ say The Sunday Times.

4. Meadowland by John Lewis-Stempel
I’m currently reading The Running Hare which does for farmland what Meadowland does for a meadow – both beautiful depictions of a year in the life of a field in Herefordshire, with abundant references to English naturalists, poets and writers, and anger at the tragic decline of flora and fauna in Britain.

5. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
This may be a filler to make it to five as I haven’t read it but it looks funny.