PUB Walks in Underhill Country is a new comic novel and it is being launched with a book signing by the author Nat Segnit at Ledbury’s Market House next week.

The book signing event on Thursday, February 17, at 6.30pm has been organised by Ledbury Books and Maps and both the Market House and the bookshop feature in this darkly comic tale.

Written in the style of those self published local walking guides the novel is about Graham Underhill, a sort of Wainwright of the West Midlands.

A keen rambler, amateur watercolourist, real ale enthusiast and writer of self-published walking guides the book’s hero Graham lives in Ledbury and the whole book is full of wonderful local references.

The story is told in a series of chapters describing local walks, complete with directions, car park information, local landmarks to look out for and good pubs to stop at along the way. The trouble is Graham finds it hard to stick to just giving his readers directions and finds himself rambling verbally as he complains about inconsiderate mountain bikers, litter louts and the Highways Agency’s plans to build a bypass through his back garden.

But mostly he finds himself rambling about the rocky state of his marriage to the beautiful Sunita and we discover that the rural idyll of Underhill country is not quite as sleepy as it seems.

The book opens with a chapter describing a walk across the Malvern Hills to Ledbury that manages to include not just Gullet Quarry, British Camp and the Beacon but references to Malvern Link railway station, the Nag’s Head, John Masefield High School and Eastnor Castle. Other walks include the Brecon Horseshoe, Shakespeare Country and some a little further afield.

Author Nat Segnit, a journalist who lives in London, said he chose Ledbury as it was a wonderful example of a traditional market town with some classic walking country nearby.

He didn’t know the area at all until he came here to research his book.

“I did do the walk from Malvern to Ledbury. It’s a real walk, like all the walks in the book,” said Nat.

If you follow Graham’s directions you will get to see the real landscape he describes but the rest of the book is pure fiction.

“It is a novel and a work of the imagination. People can tease out what’s real and what isn’t,” said Nat. “The idea for the novel came to me eight years ago while on a walking holiday in Devon. I was using one of those walking guides and I felt that occasionally amongst all the practical directions was a tiny glimpse of the author himself. I liked the idea of writing a novel that starts as a guide but gradually has the author’s life spilling out and taking over.”