Tony Chaplin has lived in Thame since he was eight and worked for more than 40 years at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. River Thame: Old Chiltern's Son (Tempus, £14.99) is a meticulously researched and beautifully illustrated history and guide to the river, drawing on the words of Spenser and Defoe, and following its course from the foothills of the Chilterns to Dorchester, where it meets the Thames.