With umpteen pretty villages in England many people would be hard-pressed to name their favourites. Not so the people behind a new book, which has named the best in the country, writes Tim Davey

O ur villages, declare the authors of a new book, are "the very embodiment of Englishness". Few who thumb through the wonderful glossy pages of their new tome, The Most Beautiful Villages of England, will find cause to disagree.

This virtual wall-to-wall pictorial with words by James Bentley and photographs from Hugh Palmer, celebrates everything that's so right about those special communities nestling in our countryside.

The good news is that here in the West we have a healthy presence within its 200-odd pages.

On our doorsteps are the villages of Lacock in Wiltshire, Dunster in Somerset, Cerne Abbas in Dorset, and Lower and Upper Slaughter in Gloucestershire.

Dunster's magnificent castle, which dominates the village skyline, features large in the photo-shoot for this popular Somerset location.

Built four years after the Norman Conquest it looks over the cluster of picture- postcard homes which line the main street of Dunster, topped off by its equally famous and photogenic 17th-century Yarn Market.

Lacock, near Chippenham, is, indeed a very rare village. Seemingly in constant use by TV and film crews as a setting for period- piece dramas, the National Trust ensures its distinctiveness is preserved for us and future generations to gaze at.

Head to the Cotswolds and you should seek out Lower and Upper Slaughter. Two villages, divided by the River Eye, they are both showcases for the traditional, warm, honey coloured stone that lies beneath the soil of these wonderful hills.

Many buildings there date from the 16th and 17th centuries and, in case you're wondering, the Slaughter part of the name has no gory connotation. It derives from "slough", an Anglo Saxon word which interprets as being a muddy spot.

Cerne Abbas in Dorset is known worldwide for one thing: its giant naked man, carrying a club, etched in the chalk of a hillside north-east of the village.

It was cut through the turf about 1,500 years ago and, once seen, is not easily forgotten, as it's something of a phallic symbol, too.

Its global reputation, though, should not be allowed to put the village of Cerne Abbas itself in the shade. It's a lovely, vintage village, packed with character properties.

This eye-catching book takes the reader on a glorious nationwide tour, from Mevagissey in the far south-west right up to Bamburgh in the north-east.

The Most Beautiful Villages of England, by James Bentley, photographs by Hugh Palmer, is published on July 27 by Thames and Hudson, priced £14.95.