This alphabetical guide is intended for the general, inquisitive visitor—both as a practical directory of what the area has to offer, and to make available straightforward background information on the unique variety of natural and human history that is here.

“It appears at a glance like a conventional guidebook got up in a style that was popular in seaside resorts in the middle of the last century. It has a cover composed of picture postcard vignettes, and pieces of information ranging from allotments to Lawrence Whistler come at you in a frankly random A to Z sequence. The explanatory layout is a mismatch of present-day cool, and postage-stamp sized black and white (in fact, mainly grey) snapshots punctuate the subdued explanatory prose. Sophisticated skimmers might even wonder if this is fifties-period pastiche, a deliberately constructed retro item, but they would deceive themselves.
It is written as such books used to be written, absolutely straight with no self-consciousness and with the signal advantage that what it says is useful and up-to-date. There is no pretence that the manner might be otherwise, the visual design corroborates the prose style and the integrity is complete. If one takes it for the kind of book it genuinely is, one discovers that one has discerned a difference and made a choice about the way a seaside resort should be. It tells you the launderette opening times and where to buy art materials, about town history and the location of public toilets, about places to walk to and the bus routes. Is there another guide like it anywhere—as thoughtful, of such wide appeal, without a jarring thought or sentence? It is a model production in every sense. As important as its range of content and practical arrangement is the way it suggests how to enjoy a place without destroying it in the process, assumes a programme for sustainable tourism that is as much an attitude of mind as a set code of practice.”
J. C. C. Mays on the 1st edition.