[from the introduction]
My goal throughout this book is to give you a good selection of
the country’s highlights, which means I exclude places that other,
more exhaustive guidebooks routinely include. Birmingham, Manchester,
and Bristol are important cities, but from the perspective of a
first-time visitor to England, they don’t have much to offer. England
has so much worth seeing that you don’t need to waste your time with the
second-rate, the overrated, or the boring.