are remnants of the Duchy of Normandy . Those Military Survey maps I used were peppered with French placenames to the extent that I almost felt I was in France . Add to this the fact that Jersey and Guernsey issue their own currency , enact their own laws , �ly their own �lags , have their own National Trusts and use different colours for mundane things such as post-boxes , it felt like being at home and being abroad at the same time . As for Channel Island Walks , the book was published in 1999 , mostly in black-and-white with a few colour inserts and my own hand-drawn maps . The initial print run sold out after ten years , which wasn ’ t great , but at least it paid its way , and I was able to recycle most of the walks through magazines for a bit of extra revenue . It was clear that the book was unlikely to be reprinted , but after a change of ownership at Cicerone , it was thrown a lifeline – maybe it would work better as two books ?
Cue another research trip of one month , again split evenly between Jersey and Guernsey . I checked all my original walks , even added a few , brought everything fully up-to-date and took plenty of new pictures . As for the mapping , the old Military Survey maps had been completely updated by a local company , Digimap , and permission was sought to use them in the new books . Hoping that this new approach would pay dividends , everything was submitted to Cicerone .
Walking on Jersey and Walking on Guernsey were both published in 2011 in full colour . Of course , as two books , one was bound to sell more than the other , and it wouldn ’ t take a genius to guess that Jersey outsold Guernsey . The islands have always been rivals , always trying to out-do each other , and I felt a slight twinge of guilt to have given one of those islands yet another reason to claim a point scored over the other . Jersey folk refer to Guernsey folk as ânes , or donkeys . Guernsey folk refer to Jersey folk as crapauds , or toads . I try not to focus on the differences between the islands , but Jersey has a national park and Guernsey doesn ’ t !
There ’ s one thing that I wish all the islands would support with more enthusiasm . A longdistance ‘ Channel Islands Way ’ was mooted many years ago , and I included details in my books . The basic premise is easy to understand . You just walk around the coastlines of Jersey , Guernsey , Alderney , Sark and Herm , covering in excess of 100 miles , seeing the best that the islands have to offer . I ’ ve seen this route reported in major national newspapers and travel magazines , yet you can spend weeks on the islands and never hear about it . I think the problem is that each island likes to keep all their visitors to themselves , and they don ’ t like to share , which is a pity .
The publication history of both books re�lects a difference in sales . Jersey went into a second edition in 2015 , with Guernsey going into a second edition in 2016 . Jersey was reprinted in 2017 , with Guernsey being reprinted in 2022 . Further research trips were necessary to take both books into their third editions , only this time the islands were visited a couple of years apart , due to the increasing drift in their publication history . Jersey ’ s third edition was published in 2021 , with Guernsey ’ s third edition due to follow in 2023 . The latest versions have been comprehensively overhauled and now come with GPX tracks , for anyone who wants them . Why anyone would want them is another matter , since it ’ s impossible to get lost in the Channel Islands , but it ’ s easy to record those tracks , so why not offer them to the readers ? So … Channel Island Walks wasn ’ t actually a good idea for a book , while Walking on Jersey and Walking on Guernsey have turned out to be great ideas . The proof is in the sales �igures . Jersey and Guernsey have sold seven times as many copies as the old Channel Islands book , over the same number of years .
The moral of the story ? Maybe there isn ’ t one . On the other hand , if you have a guidebook that isn ’ t doing too well , maybe split it into two guidebooks and see if they do better . It sounds unlikely , but it worked in this instance .
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