SKIPTON gets short shrift in the 730-page tome when compared to the community over the hill in West Yorkshire.

The historic town is dismissed in a single 80-word paragraph compared to Ilkley which gets at least a page of historic description.

According to the guide, Skipton is simply: "Anglo Saxon for Sheep town sitting on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty."

Editors describe it in a throw-away sentence - as "a pleasant market town with a long history, it is defended by its castle and church, by its wide and sloping High Street and by a water system that includes the Leeds-Liverpool canal, its spur the Springs Canal and the Eller Beck".

No mention of the town being named the best place to live in England, nor its astonishing connection with Magna Carta - willy William de Forz, owner of Skipton castle at the time, was the second baron to sign the King John document.

No mention either of our rare and wonderful First Folio of the works of William Shakespeare on display in Craven Museum in High Street and the importance of Skipton Castle in the fight for female equality in the guise of the tenacious Lady Anne Clifford, who in the 17th century beat off her male relatives to secure ownership of the building. And not to forget the Black Horse pub in High Street, a haunt on Richard II.

Ilkley's inclusion is a eulogy by comparison, yet its historical richness is arguable less significant despite its Roman and Georgian pedigree.

First big error for the guide editors is the omission to inform readers that Ilkley's Manor House Museum, behind All Saints' Church, is no longer open yet we get the times and the days people can visit. Oops! And the editors could perhaps have included Ilkley's impressively preserved Lido. It is one of only 127 remaining in England.

So it poses the question how much more of the guide is up to scratch? To be charitable, it must be a mammoth task for the 14-strong editorial team to keep up to date and all things considered, it is a very useful source of information.

Craven's other market town, Settle, with its 17th century market square and arcade of shambles, is flagged up particularly because of its Museum of North Craven Life housed in the Folly.

In the Yorkshire Dales section it features Bolton Abbey, highlighting the fact that the name applies to the whole village and the monastic ruin is actually Bolton Priory. It points out the nearby Strid, the white water gorge which takes the whole of the river Wharfe.

Up the valley, the guide focuses briefly on Grassington referring to it as the location for a Yorkshire Dales National Park Centre with a cobbled market square and several inns.

Malham is described as "one of the national parks most heavily visited areas thanks to the famous features of Malham Cove, Malham Tarn and Gordale Scar", praising Gordale as, if anything, more spectacular than Malham Cove.

The Settle to Carlisle Railway gets a special mention as one of England's most scenic railways and pays particular attention to the Ribblehead viaduct and Blea Moor tunnel.

Not missed out are Kettlewell - Norse for "bubbling spring" we are told, Horton-in-Ribblesdale, a noted walking centre, and Ingleton whose beautiful wooded valleys are the area's best feature, the editors tell us. They encourage visitors to tackle the four-and-a-half mile Ingleton Falls Walk.

It must be said, The Rough Guide, is an impressive catalogue of everything English, exploring where to go, when to go, getting there, things not to miss and finding accommodation. It features festivals and events, sports and outdoor activities and essential travel details.

It is divided into 13 areas of the country with London taking a section of its own, followed by the South East, Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds, Bristol, Bath and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, East Anglia, the West Midlands and Peak District, the East Midlands, the Northwest, Cumbria and the Lakes, Yorkshire and the Northeast.

It outlines the country's history, architecture, its books and literature and surprisingly it has an extremely comprehensive article on "Sixty Years of English Pop" which includes a list of England's Pop shrines and explores the cities that nourished the country's rock culture.

In the same vein it reviews the role the country has had in producing some of the world's greatest films, actors and directors.