The North Yorkshire countryside, from the famous Three Peaks in the Dales to the ruined abbeys of the North York Moors, have received a peon of praise in a book to be published by the former cabinet minister and author, Roy Hattersley.

Hattersley, one-time Labour big-hitter and potential Prime Minister, has set out to discover the best landscapes in the nation for his book, In Search of England, and he reveals that he was first fell in love with what he calls the most beautiful country in the world after visiting the three peaks of Pen-y-ghent, Ingleborough and Whernside.

From South Yorkshire, he was in the sixth former at Sheffield City Grammar School at the time and his praise of the Three Peaks, in the school magazine, was one of his first published works.

He praises the ruined abbeys of Fountains, Rievaulx, Fountains and Bolton, the latter now on the Duke of Devonshire’s estate in Upper Wharfedale, as “English history in stone” and monuments to the hard work of men who believed that they could “build their way to heaven.”

He also acknowledges his debt to another famous Dales-lover, Bradford-born novelist JB Priestley, who wrote that if he were forced to choose between living in Florence or the Black Country, he would head for West Bromwich.