The Little Book of the Lake District. Dalesman, £1.99.

A GOOD marker of the success of a book is when you simply have to tell someone else about it. That encapsulates The Little Book of the Lake District in a nutshell.

Measuring just three-inches by three-inches, it tells more about life than most books ten times its size.

Packed with phrases, expressions and a healthy dose of Lakeland philosophy, at £1.99 it would be a travesty if you ignored it at the bookshop.

Anyone proud to be from this neck of the woods will appreciate its use of the local dialect. Among the pearls of wisdoms are: "There's only two things t'do ere. Make love or go fishin' - and t'beck's dried up."

A tourist who asked does it always rain in the Lake District was told: "Naw, it sometimes snaws."

Alfred Wainwright's remark that "silence is always more profound where once there was noise," at the site of old mine works will also live long in the memory.

A personal favourite is: "If they say winter's coming, don't believe them - they said the same about summer."

Ellis Butcher.

January 16, 2003 10:00