The `Four Shires' of the Cotswolds make up an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and this rural region is also packed with manmade cultural treasures: castles and country houses, gardens and estates, Roman ruins and the historic Fosse Way. Author Caroline Mills shares her love of the Cotswolds with an enthusiastic, personal narrative guiding visitors from market towns to elegant abbeys, cheese-rolling competitions to Rollright Stones, Civil War battle sites to Prince Charles's organic farm. This is a colourful guidebook that offers far more than dry practicalities; Mills interviews local craftsmen and characters, and reveals local stories and folklore. She shows the rewards to be had from `slow' breaks that allow you to get under the skin of the region, and highlights restaurants and cafes that use locally produced ingredients. Visitors can enjoy a performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company, find out more about the Cotswold Lion or discover the source of the River Thames.

'Eye-opening and wonderful' The Sunday Times Magazine 'Slow guides take time to point the way.' Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall 'The Slow guides are the perfect travel companion - warm, witty and stuffed with insider knowledge. I can't think of a better way to unlock the joys of Britain.' Carl Honore, author of In Praise of Slow '....Mills is knowledgeable and in love with the region in which she spent her formative years. This passion comes through in her prose.' thetraveleditor.com '...Slow Cotswolds is a great example of an excellent local guide from a large travel publisher....it's an essential addition to all of our summer excursion toolkits, offering stacks of tips to help us enjoy the natural riches on our doorstep.' Bath Life 'In her book, Mills shares her love of the Cotswolds with an enthusiastic, personal narrative, guiding visitors from market towns to elegant abbeys, cheese-rolling competitions to Rollright Stones.' tlm magazine 'A pleasant and essential guide' Cotswold Life

Freelance travel writer Caroline Mills contributes to various UK magazines and guidebooks. She has lived in the Cotswolds for almost 40 years.