Author explores little-known Bucks countryside in ‘Go For A Walk’ book

A woman from Bourne End has written a book based on her explorations of little-known walking routes around Buckinghamshire.

Katie Waistell, 55, moved to Bourne End from Shropshire in 2001. Having grown up in the Yorkshire Dales, she made it a priority upon arriving in Bucks to get out and explore the surrounding countryside.

Originally, however, she ventured further afield to beauty spots such as Christmas Common in Oxfordshire and it wasn’t until getting a dog 10 years ago that she really began looking for walking routes in her immediate vicinity.

“People just don’t realise how beautiful some of the countryside is around this part of Buckinghamshire. Places like Marlow and Flackwell Heath may not be part of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty but they have so many easily accessible and really picturesque walks.”

Katie didn’t plan to write a book about the paths she had uncovered, but the idea came to her during lockdown as a way of encouraging people to be in nature after such a tumultuous and isolating period.

She also stumbled upon even more interesting and beautiful spots while out and about herself during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“During those lockdown months, I discovered so much that I didn’t know before about my local area – churches and monuments, old railway lines… Finding these new places really became a passion for me.”

Katie’s map-based book, ‘Go For A Walk: 21 walks local to the Chiltern towns and villages of Marlow, Bourne End, Cookham, Beaconsfield, Amersham and High Wycombe’, was published in March 2023 and combines watercolour maps of the Bucks countryside with anecdotal information about the various walking routes.

Alongside taking readers through rural countryside, Katie was determined to create variety in her trail recommendations. One walk leaves the A40 motorway near Loudwater to climb up through woods and farmland to the historic village of Penn and another goes right under the M40.

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It was always an aim of the book to encourage people to navigate using physical maps rather than relying on their phones. Katie said the inclusion of anecdotes, illustrations and even nicknames – one walk is dubbed the ‘working from home stressbuster’ – are designed to create a fun and immersive experience.

“Each walk had to have some kind of wow factor. It might be a view, a glorious patch of woodland or a medieval church.

“I also included subheads for each route with any relevant historical information. One path is based around ‘walking in the footsteps of Stanley Spencer’, a painter who lived in Cookham.”

Katie had previously published the popular guidebook ‘How to Leave a Bully’, a step-by-step text providing emotional support to those struggling with abusive relationships, in 2013.

While her first book was directed towards a fairly niche audience and was also a personal cathartic exercise, Katie said the unifying aim of helping and inspiring people was a sentiment shared by her newest publication.

“‘Go For A Walk’ is really meant to be inspirational – to spur people into exploring their local area and learning about the history of the countryside around them.”

Katie is hopeful that her new book will also appeal to tourists visiting the county, and she said copies have recently been distributed to caravan sites on the roads between Bourne End and Henley in time for the warmer weather.

‘Go For A Walk: 21 walks local to the Chiltern towns and villages of Marlow, Bourne End, Cookham, Beaconsfield, Amersham and High Wycombe’ (£7.99) is also available from shops around Bucks including Marlow Bookshop and The Lemon Tree in Bourne End.