High quality tourist guides are now available for travellers in many bookshops. Many are well illustrated with plentiful information about scenic routes, places of historical interest, hotels and restaurants. Such is this excellent publication, which consists of a guide to John Bunyan, author of the Pilgrim’s Progress, and to Bunyan country in the county of Bedford. It is a superbly produced exploration of the 17th century world of the ‘tinker of Bedford’, with a detailed account of his remarkable life and times.
Woven into the book is a fascinating biography of Bunyan, together with brief references to such contemporaries as John Gifford, Rector of St John’s, Bedford; and John Owen, the vice-chancellor of Oxford University. On one occasion Owen told King Charles II: ‘I would happily exchange all my learning for the ability to preach Christ as the tinker of Bedford does’.
This guide identifies places of interest in Bunyan country, with address and opening times, including the Bedford Museum; and eating places such as the St Helena restaurant, on the site of Bunyan’s Cottage in the High Street, Elstow.
Advice is given to foreign visitors on places of interest in London and travel in the UK.
Even if you are not a traveller, the book is worth having, (as are the other travel guides in this series, associated with C H Spurgeon, William Booth and John Knox).

Hywel Roberts
Evangelical Times
August 2002