Shropshire is Ellis Peters' county, the world of her medieval mysteries. In this book she takes the reader into the heart of the county, describing the Roman Road and revealing her connections with the town of Shrewsbury and the setting of the Benedictine Abbey featured in the Cadfael novels. She traces the history of the country through its border castles, Georgian country houses and old Elizabethan town houses, old monasteries and the modern office blocks of the town. In doing so, she recounts her personal connection with the county of her birth, from her childhood spent near Coalbrookdale to her later years in Madeley, Telford.