I Never Knew That About England by Christopher Winn

This is one of the books that I got in England! I thought it’d be a nice trip souvenir, though maybe it’s more suitable for during the trip.

I Never Knew That About England is basically a compilation of interesting facts in England. The book is organised geographically, according to the “39 traditional English counties that have defined the map of England for many hundreds of years, since these are based on natural boundaries.” I’m a total geography noob so it doesn’t matter either way to me, but I suppose it’d be a plus/minus point to people who are passionate about counties.

The facts here range from one sentence to a couple of paragraphs long, and cover things such as:

- the home of marmite (Burton-on-Trent)
- the legend of the “wicked lady”, a heiress who was so bored so took to becoming a highway robber
- the world’s first railway bridge (Causey Arch)

And many more facts. Some were familiar to me, but many are brand new.

And because there is just so much to say, each area only gets a little space. If I were still in the planning stages of the trip, I would definitely have added a few facts from here into my itinerary. In retrospect, perhaps it’s a good thing I found this book in England. The itinerary was far too long as it was.