Drive and Stroll in Oxfordshire Roger Noyce (Countryside, £7.99)

This is squarely aimed at motorists - no suggestions for local public transport, a travel experience far richer and more mind-broadening than an EasyJet weekend break. The walks are short - three to six miles - and the book uses sketches, rather than proper maps, but the instructions are clear enough, and include suggestions for pubs, including the excellent Black Prince at Woodstock, which is slightly off the tourist beat. Some pubs are not actually on the route of the walk, so you would have to return to your car and drive there, which seems to defeat the point slightly. Keen walkers are are unlikely to glean many new ideas, but this could be useful for those new to the area, or to walking.

Food for Free Richard Mabey (Collins Gem, £4.99)

In the three decades since the first publication of Food for Free, the countryside dropped off the political left's map. But with concern about the environment on the rise, Mabey's mixture of politics, poetry and science is back in fashion. Forget about air miles and boycotting supermarkets, or even allotment gardening - just pick your food from the hedgerows. If you want the philosophy, you have to buy the full version at £16.99. This is a handy short version, light enough to be taken out on walks or long foraging expeditions.

Black Swan Green David Mitchell (Sceptre, £7.99)

The Worcestershire village of Black Swan Green is hardly a rural idyll, but Mitchell conjures up a believable portrait of a countryside adolescence. Jason Taylor, 13, goes to a school which is a pit of vicious bullying, and is careful to conceal his passion for nature and secret poetry writing. The villagers are mostly racist philistines, and Jason, struggling with an uncontrollable stammer, takes refuge from his parents' bickering by collecting newspaper stories about "our boys' victories" in the Falklands.

Humble Pie Gordon Ramsay (HarperCollins, £7.99)

Anyone thinking of a career as a chef might well have second thoughts after reading this autobiography, if they haven't already seen Ramsay on TV. Ramsay escaped a difficult childhood when he fell into this hard-working, hard-drinking world. He had moved many times to escape the creditors of his alcoholic, violent father, ending up as a teenager in Banbury. Leaving home at 16 to train at catering college, he started his career at the Roxburgh Hotel in Banbury, working as a chef at the Wickham Arms before his stratospheric rise through the London restaurant world.