Hertfordshire is a county full of stories. Its closeness to London attracts the great and the good (and the not so good). We have saints - St Albans, St Thomas More and the only English Pope, Nicholas Breakspear. In contrast Hertford elections were once declared the most corrupt in the country. It is no secret that Elizabeth I became Queen at Hatfield House in South Hertfordshire, but did you know that her father Henry VIII fled a plague-ridden London to a nearby village while waiting for his first divorce to come through? And just around the corner 400 years later engineers were secretly developing the bombers which helped win the Second World War.

There are so many tales to be told about Hertfordshire it is impossible to squeeze them all between these covers. But open this little book anywhere and you will be amused, entertained, and intrigued.