Villages are the very embodiment of Englishness. The village inn and the local farm, great houses, humble cottages and beautiful country gardens speak of a way of life that has developed peacefully since Anglo-Saxon times. A few days spent in England's idyllic villages offers urban dwellers and foreign visitors a revitalizing glimpse of a more tranquil existence, full of history, legend, literature and artistic heritage. The beauty and diversity of the English village are recorded in this book in absorbing commentary and magnificent photography by James Bentley and Hugh Palmer.