BREATHTAKING scenery and beautiful sights at every stride welcome readers to Yorkshire.

Eager to explore the great outdoors, love walking and are passionate about Yorkshire? Then ‘Yorkshire Stridings’ is your cup of tea!

The book is more than a coffee table tome. This wonderful collaboration between award-winning photographer, Ian Beesley, and one of Britain’s popular poets, Ian McMillan, will surely inspire readers captivated by Beesley’s stunning snapshots and McMillan’s anecdotal prose of life in God’s Own County to go forth and stride out to explore for themselves this green and very pleasant land.

The pair’s knowledge and expertise is honed from the years they have spent walking through the landscape and absorbing the life within the towns and cities of their home county.

And now they are passing on their passion for Yorkshire to every person who picks up and reads their book which provides an evocative portrait of the ancient Ridings of Yorkshire’s past and present as well as its history, its culture and the unchanged landscapes which have been strolled across and enjoyed by past and future generations.

For those wondering, the book explains ‘Stridings’ is ‘to walk with long regular or measured paces.’

McMillan’s prose about the “The Ambition of the Yorkshire Strider” puts it very much into perspective - this you must read for yourself as it sums up perfectly the pleasures and benefits striding brings.

According to McMillan, late night striding is the best - the accompanying shot is a captivating image of Whitby Abbey at dusk.

Other coastal captures on camera include two fishermen, standing hopeful, on Runswick Bay and a dog digging in the sand at Sandsend.

Picturesque Whitby harbour and vantages of its beach occupy the pages along with many more sights and scenes Yorkshire folk can be guilty of taking for granted, yet which attract visitors and tourists alike to travel from afar to behold.

Atmospheric images of Ilkley moor’s Neolithic stone circle as well as other historic symbols, The Doubler stone and the Cup and Ring stone, are recorded within chapter dedicated to the ‘Magnetic North.’

Even Yorkshire’s characteristics, the millstone grit and limestone pavements of Airedale, around the iconic Malham Cove and the limestone walls of Mastilles Lane, Kilnsey, along with the county’s mountains and moorland, get more than a mention, appearing in pictures and some in prose.

The sun and snow-capped landscape of Saddleworth demonstrates the moor in all seasons and depict its hallmarks, the millstone grit, pots and pans.

Brimham Rocks and The Colne Valley are beautifully captured too, while the cobbles and water define the character and events which have shaped York’s history in recent times.

McMillan challenges readers with his poem to discover how this historic city thinks and focuses on the ‘thinkers’ the students who pursue their further education here in preparation for the world of work.

A black and white shot spanning the weaving shed at Bradford’s landmark Listers Mill - a legacy of the city’s textile heyday - captures the rows of terraced housing beyond.

Bradford’s ‘painted striders’ among them foot prints in Centenary Square, also occupy a page in this evocative tome, along with a black and white image of The snicket, one of many quirky characteristics weaved within this cityscape.

Interestingly the photographs and poetry haven’t been published before so this book is well worth a read.

Priced at £15, ‘Yorkshire Stridings’ is published by Souvenir Press.

The book is available from branches of Waterstones, Salts Mill, Saltaire, as well as Amazon, the Book Depository and Wordery.