BBCIn 1939, the newly established Penguin Books published six guides to English counties, complete with touring maps, aimed at the middle-class motorist. Emma Jane Kirby has been driving around the UK with those first-edition guides in her hand to see how Britain has changed since the start of World War Two. Next stop: Somerset.
“To tell the story of Glastonbury is difficult,” protests my Penguin guide’s pernickety author, “so cunning is the mixture of legend and history.”
For the classically trained schoolmaster, S E Winbolt, today’s Glastonbury might test his narrative powers further still, and especially on market day.
I’ve only been strolling the…
