LEDBURY and Malvern feature predominantly in a new book of tours around Herefordshire.

Hereford author Graham Roberts spent 18 months researching and writing Around and About Herefordshire and the Southern Welsh Marches. The book features 12 road-based tours across 3,500 square miles of south-east Powys, east Monmouthshire, north-west Gloucestershire, west Worcestershire, south Shropshire and Herefordshire.

Local tours include Bromyard to Worcester and back, which takes in Brockhampton, Edwyn Ralph, Edvin Loach, Madresfield, Malvern, Ledbury, Bishop's Frome and Bosbury.

Mr Roberts said he felt the book filled a gap in the market.

"There are a lot of excellent books on walks in this area but nothing very much for people who haven't got the energy or muscles to walk around these very large distances," he said.

Having lived in Hereford for about 40 years, Mr Roberts and his wife Wendy discovered that even after so long there were still areas of the region about which they knew very little.

"We designed a dozen car tours of tolerable distance, between 30 miles and 90 and then my wife and I set off and started researching and taking pictures," he said.

"I think that really our eyes have been opened to what there is in terms of the natural history around the landscape."

Around and About Herefordshire and the Southern Welsh Marches is out now from Logaston Press, available from bookshops and Tourist Information Centres, priced £12.95.