This quirky little book about a quirky little town introduces Hitchin to: the newly arrived keen to know about the area, visitors who want to get the most out of their time here (the beauty of Hitchin is that it’s walkable) and tourists with time to mooch. Londoners dismiss Hitchin as the sticks but it is in fact a town to be reckoned with and ought, by right, to be groaning under Blue Plaques. Hitchin Market is the largest open market in the Home Counties; this is where King Offa of the famous Dyke died; Bob Hope’s family came from here, as did that of Anthony Hope Hawkins, author of The Prisoner of Zenda; this is where little Joseph Lister of antiseptic fame started school and ended up a Lord; Sir Frank Whittle, world famous inventor of the jet engine, lived here for a while and when Sir Henry Wood of Proms fame died here a train was chartered to bring mourners from London; George Chapman, the first to translate Homer came from Hitchin and George Orwell shopped in Brooker’s. After the tragedy of the town’s vandalisation in the 60s and 70s people breathe a sigh of gratitude for campaigning groups such as The Hitchin Society, Hitchin Historical Society and Keep Hitchin Special who gather under the Hitchin Forum umbrella to protect the town’s heritage.