Two lengthy trips from Cornwall to the north of Scotland and many miles on the lesser known roads along the coast led to me writing an entertaining golf and travel guide through south west England, Wales and much of Scotland.

Whilst we encountered some pretty wild weather, there were some memorable golfing experiences. We had landslides on the Mull of Kintyre and the day I played at Royal Troon for the first time there were winds of up to 90 knots making the course almost unplayable.

Cornwall was originally going to be a sightseeing trip but there I discovered some great courses such as Saunton East, St Enodoc and Trevose. My wife thought that St Enodoc was proving to be quite difficult but this was soon put into perspective when after 5 holes we joined up with a lady with only one arm and who was the British senior amputee champion.

We quickly discovered that the golf clubs were great places to meet the locals and often friendships developed from these chance meetings. On our second trip we were in Scotland in May and the weather was particularly wet and cool for much of the time. After playing Dunblane New a couple invited us to afternoon tea at their house nearby. Roy and Shirley Erskine had been past captains and their son , Keith, a past club champion there. Keith went on to be the professional at Irvine Bogside an enjoyable course in Ayr and then later moved to the USA. Their daughter Judy was the national tennis coach and, a decade later their grandson Andy Murray became Britain 's number one ranked player. We met the Erskines in 1996 and we still try to meet up each time we travel to Scotland. That 's the wonderful thing about being a travelling golfer - the friendships you make.

Golf courses are an endless variety of battlefields and in Fairways there are reviews of the best of the links, some great inland courses such as Gleneagles and Blairgowrie and some remote locations like Machrihanish.

Fairways also scores the accommodation and one hotel in Dornoch was the stuff of Faulty Towers. In the 1990 's when the internet was just a fledgling we found that B & B 's could often be successfully chosen by looking for a neat garden and a non smoking sign. These days I wouldn 't dream of heading to Britain without booking most of my golf and all of my accommodation 9 -12 months in advance.

Even though Fairways was published back in 1999, I still have people coming up to me after golf saying how much they enjoyed it and the practical advice and recommendations it contains.