Fountains Abbey: The Cistercians in Northern England by Glyn Coppack (Tempus, pb £15.99)

Perhaps no abbey in England is better loved than Fountains Abbey. The quietness of the setting and solemnity of the ruins, perhaps coupled with the complementary beauty of Studley Royal Water Gardens, of which the abbey was made a feature, draws thousands over and over again. Glyn Coppack, a senior officer with English Heritage, here tells its story, based on the very latest research.

From the first monastery - not in the same place as today's - through the expansion of Cistercian power and debasement of its ideals, to the abbey's remarkable afterlife as a spectacle in a landscaped park and then a tourist attraction, the coverage is authoritative yet readable, and well supported by 100 pictures, 25 of which are in colour. The book will deepen the enjoyment of any frequent Fountains pilgrim.

Kit Calvert: Yorkshire Dalesman by WR Mitchell (Castleberg, 18 Yealand Avenue, Giggleswick, Settle, BD24 0AY, Tel 01729 822371, pb £5.99)

Name a famous dalesman... the answer is chorused back across the Ridings: Kit Calvert. Saviour of The Cheese, Translator of the Bible - into broad Yorkshire. Chancellor of the University of Dales - his trust-the-customer second-hand bookshop in Hawes. And motor-engineer extraordinary - designer of the pioneering front-wheel-drive Curlew car.

A distinctive figure with his floppy trilby and invariable clay pipe, Kit etched his name and personality more strikingly into 20th century Dales' history than any contemporary. In this 76-page monograph, former Dalesman editor Bill Mitchell draws rewardingly on his 40-year friendship with Kit. Only days before he died in January 1984, he returned to Bill the proof of an article, with a note which said he was "off colour'' but would pick up when the spring weather arrived.

Augmenting a good selection of pictures are several delightful pen-and-ink drawings by the inimitable Fred Lawson, another outstanding dalesman. These set the seal on what is sure to become a collector's item.

Concerning Cook by Cordelia Stamp (Caedmon of Whitby, 128 Upgang Lane, Whitby, YO21 3JJ, Tel: 01947 604646, pb £2.95)

THIS is a vague title for a specific, original contribution to Capt Cook scholarship. In a nicely-designed and well-presented slim volume, Caedmon publisher Cordelia Stamp presents all the known portraits of Cook, with informed comments on them plus notes on the artists, sometimes accompanied by their likenesses too. Reproduced almost full-page is a variation of the well-known oil of Cook by Nathaniel Dance, which shows the navigator grinning broadly - who wouldn't when being waited upon by a buxom wench displaying generous cleavage. Concocted as a joke for the secretary of the Capt Cook Society, it appears here, Cordelia explains, to raise a laugh - "for without humour the world would be a very sad place.''

True, Cordelia, true. And a round of applause for following your instinct where more cautious, perhaps more purely academic, souls would have held back.