Ben Giles – författare

The breathtaking, unputdownable insider account of Britain's most hidden profession What happens after the police tape comes down? Ben Giles has spent thirty years cleaning what most people can't bear to imagine. Dead bodies decomposing for weeks. Kitchen floors painted with blood. Hoarders' homes where the filth tells stories of unimaginable loneliness. A whale carcass lodged on a cargo ship. This is the Britain you never see – until someone needs to make it disappear.Starting with nothing but a bucket of Dettol and a can-do attitude, Giles built the UK's leading biohazard cleaning network. From industrial spillages to animal remains, he's faced horrors that would break most people – and taught hundreds of people to do the same, in full hazmat gear. Yet threaded through the gore and dark humour is something unexpected: profound compassion for the lives interrupted, the families destroyed, and the deaths that society prefers to forget.The Specialist takes you behind the scenes of suicides, murders, and tragic accidents — revealing not just which chemicals remove bloodstains, and how, but what violence, neglect, and loss actually look like when the rest of us can only look away. It's unflinching, occasionally hilarious, and utterly unforgettable.

The breathtaking, unputdownable insider account of Britain's most hidden profession What happens after the police tape comes down? Ben Giles has spent thirty years cleaning what most people can't bear to imagine. Dead bodies decomposing for weeks. Kitchen floors painted with blood. Hoarders' homes where the filth tells stories of unimaginable loneliness. A whale carcass lodged on a cargo ship. This is the Britain you never see – until someone needs to make it disappear.Starting with nothing but a bucket of Dettol and a can-do attitude, Giles built the UK's leading biohazard cleaning network. From industrial spillages to animal remains, he's faced horrors that would break most people – and taught hundreds of people to do the same, in full hazmat gear. Yet threaded through the gore and dark humour is something unexpected: profound compassion for the lives interrupted, the families destroyed, and the deaths that society prefers to forget.The Specialist takes you behind the scenes of suicides, murders, and tragic accidents — revealing not just which chemicals remove bloodstains, and how, but what violence, neglect, and loss actually look like when the rest of us can only look away. It's unflinching, occasionally hilarious, and utterly unforgettable.

The tranquil borderland of the Marches offers a varied landscape truncated by rivers meandering to lowland plains. Limestone to the west and north of the old red sandstone of the Hereford Plain has given rise to exceptionally attractive hilly country with delightful, narrow valleys. In these 40 walks Ben Giles explores all the best places to vist in this wonderful area of the country.

The Peak District is an upland area at the southern end of the Pennines and includes parts of Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. Mostly split between the gritstone of the Dark Peak and the limestone area of the White Peak, the Peak District National Park became the UK's first national park in 1951. Tourism had been growing since the advent of the railways, with visitors attracted by the spa towns of Buxton and Matlock Bath, Castleton's show caves, and Bakewell, the national park's only town. The stunning landscape accessed by an extensive network of public footpaths now draws outdoors enthusiasts from far and wide. This new volume from Pocket Mountains Ltd includes 40 of the most popular walks in the Peak District.

The enigmatic Neolithic standing stones at Stonehenge and Avebury first drew footsore pilgrims to this landlocked area of Southern England more than 4000 years ago. Today there are scores of waymarked footpaths, bridleways and byways which connect the rolling downland, verdant valleys, white chalk horses, ancient settlements and vibrant historic towns of the 'great green county' of Wiltshire. This guide contains 40 circular routes which make the most of that network. Most walks can be completed inside two or three hours, though some will require half a summer's day, with a few full-day routes along the downland ridges.

The Brecon Beacons National Park is home to some of the most spectacular mountain and moorland scenary in Britain. Bridging South and Mid Wales, the park can be divided into three distinct upland areas, with the central flat-topped peaks of the Brecon Beacons massif sandwiched by the rolling ridges of the Black Mountains in the East and the similarly named, but quite different, Black Mountain region in the West. As well as being packed full of standing stones, castles, wildlife and waterfalls, the park is also home to the Fforest Fawr UNESCO Global Geopark and is recognised as an International Dark Sky Reserve. The 40 circular routes in the volume cover all the most popular peaks, as well as highlighting some lesser-known gems in one of Britain's best-loved national parks.

Although Surrey is not far from metropolitan London, it famously has more mature woodland than any other county in England and has long been renowned for its rolling hills and valleys, ancient heathlands, beautiful waterways and charming villages. There is a surprisingly extensive network of local paths and bridleways and, to the south of the North Downs chalk ridge, the hills are intersected by three long-distance walking trails. All these feature in this collection of 40 walks, which explore glorious parklands, country estates, ruined abbeys, impressive castles and wildlife-rich woodlands along the way.

Situated between the Thames Estuary and the Straits of Dover, the borderland county of Kent is home to tidal saltmarshes, high chalk downs, riverside meadows and ancient woodlands, as well as the magnificant Canterbury Cathedral and the iconic white cliffs of Dover. With many impressive castles, gardens, cultivated estates, vineyards, orchards and hop farms, the county has long been known as 'The Garden of England'. The 40 walks in this book cater for all abilities and make good use of Kent's many footpaths and long-distance trails to explore this wonderful corner of England.

Sitting alongside the English Channel in the southeast corner of England, East Sussex is famed for its rolling hills and magnificent wealdland, Norman battlefields and charming medieval villages, towering chalk cliffs and hip seaside resorts. The county is also traversed by the South Downs Way long distance walking route and is home to England's newest national park, as well as miles of beautiful sandy coastline. From short forays into wildlife-rich wetlands, nature reserves and woodlands to longer riverside meanders and rollercoaster treks along spectacular sea cliffs, the forty varied walks in this guide cover the best walking this glorious county has to offer.

From the city of Chichester with its ancient walls and harbour inlets standing sentinel over the English Channel to the northern heights of Black Down on its ridge of greensand above the intervening folds, farms and villages of the western Weald, from the bustling towns of Crawley and Horsham in the lee of the chalk slopes of the South Downs to the traditional seaside resorts of Littlehampton and Worthing, the 40 circular walks in this guide offer plenty of scope to explore West Sussex's famed downs, woods, heaths and nature reserves, along with its villages, stately homes and country estates.

The Isle of Wight in the English Channel is England's largest island, separated from the mainland by the Solent but easily and quickly accessible from the south coast. Designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, the mild climate and slower pace of life has long attracted holiday-makers and curious walkers who come to explore the island's rolling chalkland hills, peaceful woodland paths and sandy beaches and coves. The 40 walks in this volume make the most of the island's well-maintained trails - which include some of the most celebrated clifftop walks in southern England - as well as many lesser-known gems waiting to be discovered on this Treasure Island.

From the broad riverside meadows of the Herefordshire plain and the soaring limestone cliffs of the lower gorge near Chepstow to the industrial heritage of the Forest of Dean in the East and the far-reaching views of the Trellech plateau in the West. Ben Giles' 40 circular routes offer a refreshing introduction to the picturesque landscape of the Wye Valley, one of the most varied places in Britain to explore on foot. From the ever popular 40 walks series from Pocket Mountains. These pocket sized, attractively designed walking guides written by local experts are the perfect gift, memento from a visit or traditional guidebook to the best Hill and Riverside walks in the Wye Valley.

Packed with footpaths, bridleways and country lanes, and crossed by Britain's oldest ridgeway, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire offer some of the most varied and interesting walking in southeast England. Famed for the city of Oxford's dreaming spires and the Dukes of Marlboroughs' magnificent Blenheim Palace, the region is also home to the infant River Thames (or Isis), the eastern Cotswold hills and the Vale of the White Horse in the Berkshire Downs, which form part of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape. The 40 walks in this volume take in all the most popular walking trails, as well as some less familiar hidden gems.

Of all the counties surrounding London, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire are most closely associated with the title 'home counties' and both contain large stretches of what is thought of as quintessential English countryside. The Chilterns dominate the south, a plateau-like maze of chalk hills covered with beechwoods, villages and fields rising from the Thames Valley to a steep northern escarpment, and at its foot the fertile farmland of the Vale of Aylesbury stretches northwards towards the River Great Ouse and the start of the Midlands beyond. Across the Thames lies the more densely populated East Berkshire, which nevertheless still boasts some wonderful countryside, including the landscaped parkland of Windsor Castle.

40 Town and Country Walks in Gloucestershire by Ben Giles