An Armchair Traveller's History of Cambridge provides not only a narrative of the city and university, and a guide to visits within a short driving distance, it also features a variety of aspects ignored in other accounts: food and fashion, music and gardens, books and clubs, Cambridge contributions to poetry, theatre and sport, royal associations and links with the Arab world and China. Cambridge offers the splendour of King's College Chapel and the beauty of "the Backs" but also outstanding collections of fans and fritillaries, sculpture and stained glass, medieval coins and oriental manuscripts. Free attractions include the world-class Fitzwilliam Museum and Botanic Gardens, quirky Kettle's Yard, and museums devoted to Archaeology, Anthropology, Zoology, Earth Sciences, Polar Research and the History of Science—plus Britain's oldest bookshop. Enter the world of "Bumps and Bedders" and learn why May Week is in June. Research reveals that most visitors to Cambridge never venture more than four hundred yards from the Market Square. An Armchair Traveller's History of Cambridge will help you do better than that—and want to.

Richard Tames read History at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and teaches for Syracuse University in London. He is also the author of A Traveller's History of Oxford and A Traveller's History of London and co-author of A Traveller's History of Bath.