Quentin Letts is the political sketch writer for The Times and a theatre critic for The Sunday Times, and for several years has presented a BBC Radio 4 series, What’s the Point of …? He is the author of a number of books including the bestselling 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain and a novel, The Speaker’s Wife.

Quentin is also a deputy church warden.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS LIVED IN HEREFORDSHIRE? IF SO, WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT GROWING UP HERE? IF NOT, WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE COUNTY.

I was born in Gloucestershire (at Cirencester) but was at boarding school in Herefordshire from the age of eight. I remember the smells: grass, cowpats, the wisteria on the school's exterior wall, and in Hereford itself the lovely whiff of apples from Bulmers. I also remember the view of the Malvern Hills, particularly of the British Camp. My mind would swim with images of ancient Brits patrolling its earthworks, scouring the horizon for sign or sight of Roman legions.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE HEREFORDSHIRE TO PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW IT?

A green and bosomy landscape, recently rather soggy, its roads much potholed, these are former borderlands which over the centuries have relaxed into something gentler.

AND IF A STRANGER ONLY HAD TIME TO VISIT ONE PLACE, WHERE WOULD YOU SUGGEST?

Clodock and its ancient church. One stormy evening last autumn, for All Souls, I joined the Hereford Church Singers as they performed Faure's Requiem. The road drops dramatically into that valley and you could be entering somewhere out of Tolkien. Gunmetal-grey clouds were scudding past like busybodies. The graveyard was full of Watkinses (my wife's family once had lots of them). The church's angled walls almost throb with history and on top of all that the service was taken by the Rev Nicholas Lowton, most bracing of preachers, one of those rare clergymen who actually seems to believe. Fantastic night.

WHAT MAKES HEREFORDSHIRE PEOPLE SPECIAL?

Is 'special' the word? Plenty of them are certainly unusual! I like their disobedience.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR FAVOURITE THING TO DO IN THE COUNTY ON A DAY OFF?

Pilot my late father's 1930 Morris Minor up to Brockhampton cricket club and watch a game while supping a pint (just the one) of Stowford's. The Brockhampton boys really do hit a ball hard.

WHERE IS YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE TO EAT?

The New Inn at Fownhope. My wife says they do the best burgers in Christendom but I like the pork casserole. Yaks and Yetis in Ross is another favourite.

WHERE IS YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE TO MEET FRIENDS FOR A DRINK AND A CATCH-UP?

Apart from the New Inn at Fownhope, the Crown at Woolhope, the Alma at Linton or the Prince of Wales in Ledbury - I can usually find my son there. He is trying to teach his new wife (she is from China) to like English beer. It is a work in progress.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE WALK – OR VIEW?

The view from the top of the British Camp, looking towards Colwall and the rest of Herefordshire, is surely what inspired Edward Elgar.

WHAT’S THE VERY BEST THING ABOUT THE COUNTY?

I was going to say its emptiness but greedy housing developers are ruining that. Instead I will say the county's churches are its greatest glory, starting with How Caple church. And what a cathedral we have!

WHAT WOULD MAKE HEREFORDSHIRE AN EVEN BETTER PLACE TO LIVE?

Successive promotions for the Bulls and an end to the daft bureaucratic hassles over Hereford's university.