About the Author: Heather Lacey
Born and bred in the London Suburbs, Heather's great escape in her youth was those wonderful green London Country Buses, enabling her to roam in the fields of North West Kent.
Leaving school at fifteen, she swore never to go into a school again. However, useless at keeping promises to herself, following higher education she spent forever teaching English to teenagers in Kent. Eventually, having despaired of ticking boxes rather than broadening the knowledge, understanding and interest in the subject for her students, she has almost managed to escape. Now she is the dreaded supply-teacher!
With the greater freedom she now has, Heather enjoys devoting her time to her many and varied hobbies, including walking. One of her regular haunts is at Hucking, on the North Downs, where she leads guided walks. It's not just around Kent that she wanders around in her boots, but on holidays too. This year, for example, she's stomped around the East Yorkshire coast and in the Lake District.
A couple of years' ago, she decided to do the bit on the South Downs Way that she missed out on as a teenager: it was shorter in those days - Hampshire has been added more recently. So, at Easter, she made her way from Kent to Hampshire, had a day in Winchester and then spent the next few days exploring new territory.
Her dalliance with the South Downs Way was spoiled by two things: terrible weather and the lack of a book about the area which would satiate her curiosity. Unable to do anything about the weather, she decided to find out curious and interesting things about the people, places and history either side of the South Downs Way.
By the time Heather had reached the Hampshire's border with Sussex, she'd discovered enough to fill a book.