A NEW visitor guide to North Yorkshire is to be launched this month.

The glossy A4 guide, drawn up by the Tourism Association of North Yorkshire (TANY), will be launched at the York Bird of Prey Centre, situated in the grounds of Burn Hall at Huby on February 20.

The publication will mark the 40th year of the independent tourism organisation.

It will showcase an array of local attractions and this year will focus on author Peter Walker, who wrote the Constable series of books under the pen name of Nicholas Rhea. The books were turned into the long-running TV hit, Heartbeat and showcased the North York Moors to a worldwide audience.

The author, from Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, died in April last year.

TANY chairperson Ena Dent says: “Peter’s novels and the TV show did so much to boost visitor numbers to the North York Moors National Park, and his daughter (and Countryman’s Daughter columnist) Sarah, writes a tribute to her father, revealing the little known real story behind the TV beat bobby.”

The publication will also look at Castle Howard, rural policing and Masham landscape artist Ian Scott Massie. Requests for copies have already come in from Oregon in the USA, as well as Australia, Canada, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Malaysia.

For more information, visit; www.visityorkshire.com.

Alternatively, you can follow TANY on Facebook at facebook.com/VisitYorkshire, on Twitter at @TourismNYorks or on Instagram at Tourismnorthyorks.