Since I began reviewing for this site, I've seen several excellent examples of independently-published "local interest" (for want of a better term) books. Len Burland's A Historical Tour around Mynyddislwyn Mountain is another such, even if the title is not exactly snappy.

The cover illustration is a cross between a holiday brochure and a private photo album, with Rowan Williams making his appearance alongside a somewhat out-of-perspective sketch of a Nonconformist chapel. The collage of photographs and drawings contributes to an overall impression of a labour of love as much as one of learning, but this hardly detracts from the value of the collection of facts, images and personal comment to be found between the covers. There are literally dozens of maps, charts, drawings and old photographs, all combining to create a comprehensive picture of a Gwent community.  If this proves one thing, it is that almost any part of the British Isles can furnish enough sites and objects of historic interest to fill a volume of several hundred pages.

The book was apparently written in the hope of making a small profit to be put towards the millennium fund for replacing the bells of St Tudor's Church, Mynyddislwyn. I don't know whether it succeeded; books of this type all too often have to be underwritten, and even when they do make a profit, it is rarely enough to repay the personal time and effort put in by the author. Len Burland is clearly an accomplished local historian, not a dabbler. He knows how to assemble and present his material, and he takes care to produce an effect which, if not slick, is at least professional. As might be expected, some of the old photographs are not of good quality, but the reproductions are the best one could hope for in these circumstances.