Odd Corners in Appleby, by Gareth Hayes. Hayloft, £8.50.(Available from Hayloft Publishing, South Stainmore, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria CA17 4EU, telephone 017683 42300).

BORN and bred in Appleby, the author takes a stroll around some of the lesser known and quirkier corners of the historic market town.

Over a hundred glossy black and white photographs taken from odd angles reveal the minute details of the town's forgotten history making this coffee-table book an ideal present for someone who is familiar with Appleby.

The pictures are not restricted to panoramic postcard images of the famous buildings such as the Moot Hall and the Norman Keep but show the nooks and crannies of the town through the eyes of an inquisitive visitor.

Although railways, religion and Romany have a significant place in the book, as the traditional subject matter for the town's history, Hayes also looks at peculiar topics such as hairdressing.

The text is intelligent, easy to read and combines historical details with amusing anecdotes. For example, a chapter entitled The Dead Shop' traces the purpose of the building from mortuary to bike shop and is enlivened by the author's recollection of having peered into the window to see the labelled toe of a corpse.

The history of the town is constantly compared with the present day. A photograph of bottle-necked holiday traffic crawling past cows tethered to the grass verge in the driving rain contrasts perfectly the Lake District's history of farming with today's tourism - the wet weather being the ever present factor.

Written with an underlying attempt to find utopia in the cobbled back streets of the town, this book is idealistic yet realistic. It follows a logical layout, looking at the town's history place by place and still manages to throw in the possibility that the name Appleby' may have connections with King Arthur!

Carla Pickering.

January 16, 2003 10:00