Craig Hutchings , photographer and author of a new book celebrating the Quantocks, explains why he loves his hills so much

I was born and brought up in the shadow of the glorious Quantock hills, which guard the sunset side of one of this country's finest counties, Somerset.

So it was little wonder that after serving 20 years in the Royal Air Force, on return to my beloved Somerset, I was inexorably drawn to the hills of the famous poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, in which to make my home.

The Quantocks are relatively small in size compared to many national parks such as Exmoor, its larger Somerset cousin – rising out of the Vale of Taunton Deane, reaching it's zenith of 1,200ft at Wills Neck, before disappearing into the fossil-strewn shores of the Bristol Channel a mere 12 miles later.

But what a 12 miles; views that stretch over nine counties, footpaths winding over miles of heather-clad moorland, magnificent woodland rich with flora and fauna and a Jurassic coastline where relics from a prehistoric time can be marvelled.

Is there any finer sight or sound in Britain than on a misty October morning seeing a Red deer stag out on the open moor, roaring and strutting his stuff during the October rut?

So it's little wonder that Coleridge and Wordsworth, when staying on the hills in the 1790s, took great inspiration from these sylvan combes and in doing so, wrote some of this country's most celebrated literature.

Having married my Welsh wife, Bev, while serving in the RAF, our home is often transformed into a hotel with relatives and friends from far afield staying and enjoying all the rural delights that West Somerset offers.

It was my father-in-law Roy who planted the first seeds of inspiration in me deciding to document this wonderful landscape when he visited and uttered the immortal words: "One hell of a backyard you've got here".

This comment, coupled with our friends asking where could they get a souvenir of their stay, made me think "I can do this, I can take a decent photo, I'll put a photographic book together depicting the stunning scenery of the Quantocks for everyone to enjoy".

Indeed, taking a decent photo was born out of my father Ron's frustrations of me holding a cricket bat in my hands just about every waking minute of every day during the Seventies while trying to do my best Viv Richards impression.

Fed up with the session of balls colliding into his beloved roses, he asked me if I was interested in "models, red lights and darkened rooms". It turned out that the red light was a "safe light" for the darkroom and, to my horror, the model was the 70-year-old chairman's wife of the SWEB camera club! But from there a life-long love photography was forged.

The next five years saw just about every weekend and spare day taken up with my quest to capture the ever-changing light cascading over the Quantocks.

My family, during that time, were deprived of hours of sleep, as the alarm would sound in the early morning in order for me to catch the best light.

I experienced everything from wind-swept moors turning my shutter finger numb, only for the glorious sunrise I'd been anticipating to be engulfed by a weather front ruining the shot, to stalking a deer for hours with my two daughters, Amberley and Emily, resembling some sort of love child of Wurzel Gummage and Rambo in our camouflage clothing.

On that excursion we were taking our time, checking the wind direction, then lying in wait. Then, as the deer got ever closer and just as I had the perfect shot lined up, one of then says in an exited but overly loud voice :"There he is! There he is!". The deer and the shot were gone.

But dotted in among the frustrations have been some truly magical moments, which I have been privileged to capture.

In some respects, the photography was the easy part, but I had great help from Iain Porter and Chris Edwards from the Quantock Hills AONB service who helped me secure a grant to part-fund the book and get it published.

Indeed, I am fortunate to live in and enjoy the hills and with help from Halsgrove and the AONB service, I thought I'd give back something to this wonderful landscape, so future generations can enjoy the beauty of the Quantocks, as I have.

As such, I have decided to donate my royalties to the registered charity, Friends of Quantock. Run by a voluntary committee elected annually, it provides a voice for all those people concerned with the beauty and welfare of the Quantock Hills and endeavours to preserve the Quantock landscape for future generations.

Portrait of the Quantock Hills, is published by Halsgrove, priced £14.99.