Leading book sellers Amazon.co.uk sell over 200 different guide books for the UK, and Google.com will link you to literally 1000s of different websites. With so much choice selecting the right one for you can be difficult, so here are the best ones for you to choose from.

Lonely Planet, Great Britain

£16.99 Lonely Planet Publications, contacted on 12.08.08 (http://www.lonelyplanet.biz/contact.htm)

Perhaps the most authoritative guide books in the world, Lonely Planet have some of the best travel writers and deliver the most comprehensive coverage of the UK.

As well as an in-depth history section, it also has excellent review guides for accommodation, sports and adventure information, a great guide to eating and drinking across the UK, guides to places of historical and cultural interest, and over 200 easy to use coloured maps.

It is a good size for keeping in a travel bag or rucksack, and is one of the few guide books that covers all parts of the UK in detail. Essential if you plan to travel around much.

Fastcheck

http://beta.arrivalguides.com/en (free of charge) - contacted on 12.08.08

If you are coming over for a short trip, staying in one of the UK’s major cities, or just on a budget, then this is the one for you.

Available as a free download on PDF format, Fastcheck offers you travel guides to 16 of the UK’s major cities in 21 different languages, all written by renowned local journalists.

Convenient, easy to access (and free!) it has a good range of reviews of different areas and local attractions including museums, galleries, restaurants and nightclubs. However, if you are staying longer and wish to really explore in detail, you may find it doesn’t go far enough. In that case you should consider the one below.

Time Out City Guides

£12.99 Penguin Books, contacted on 12.08.08

These guide books are simply the best tool you can have for discovering a major city. The only problem is that they only cover 3 cities in the UK: London, Manchester and Edinburgh.

However, these are 3 incredible guides packed full of information on accommodation, bars and pubs, theatre, dance, comedy, clubs, film, music, gay & lesbian, sport, classical music, museums, galleries and all the major tourist attractions. They not only provide some of the most up-to-date information, but also break each area of the city down into separate sections, which allows you to explore parts that, otherwise, you may never have seen. It’s a bit like having a very cool friend who lives in the city and wants to show you around all day.

Visit Britain

www.visitbritain.com (free of charge), contacted on 12.08.08

This is a great website for those of you that want to discover more about Britain’s unique cultural and historical heritage, it is also the official website for visitors to the UK. It has lots of information on upcoming special events, including special offers, and you can pre-buy tickets to events and places of interest. You should also visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk if this is an area that interests you. This is another very useful and comprehensive online guide.
 

Hip Hotels UK

£18.95 Thames and Hudson Ltd, contacted on 12.08.08

Finally we come to a guide book that is pretty self-explanatory. If you are coming to the UK for a really good time, and you have just inherited a small fortune, then this book will guide you to some of the finest hotels and dining rooms in the country. With an emphasis on small and exclusive ‘boutique’ hotels, from north to south, this really is a chance to indulge your hedonistic side, whilst visiting either beautiful countryside or fashionable city centres, if only every day could be a Hip Hotel day!

by John Hillman 

USEFUL WORDS

bookseller / bookshop
travel writing
author = a person who writes books
sections / chapters
fold out map
contents page
index = list of topics in a book, usually found at the back
explore = to travel around a country or area in order to learn more about it

Types of Book
You can see the original manuscript of ‘Hamlet’ in the museum in Shakespeare’s own writing.
Before a book is sent to be printed, the author must check the proofs.
Where is volume three of this set of encyclopaedias?
The new government report on agricultural statistics is a very interesting publication.
Have you got a copy of Graham Greene’s ‘Brighton Rock’?
This book costs £12, but that’s the hardback price.  The paperback costs only £5.50.
His first three novels didn’t sell very well, but his fourth was a best-seller and made a fortune.
The book has already been selling well for five years.  Now the publishers are going to bring out a new edition with illustrations.
She likes to relax by reading a thriller about spies or crime.
I’m reading a whodunnit.  It’s fun trying to guess who the murderer is.

Ways of Reading
I spend a lot of time in bookshops.  I don’t often buy books.  I just browse.
If I come to a boring bit in a book, I just skip a few pages till the real story starts again.
I’ll look up his number in the phone book.
I didn’t know the word.  I had to refer to a dictionary.
Of course an encyclopaedia is not a book you read from cover to cover.  You just dip into it for things that interest you.
I never liked history at school.  I found it very hard to wade through all that boring stuff about wars and revolutions.
We have requested our lawyers to peruse the document with the greatest care to decide whether it’s legal or not.
Some people have the ability to skim a page, which means to read it very quickly, just taking in the main points.
I sometimes flip through a magazine in a newsagent’s but I don’t usually buy one.