Bill Bryson visited the Tours and talked about it in his book Notes from a Small Island.
Heavily abridged, the book was read in five fifteen-minute episodes by Kerry Shale for BBC Radio 4.
Bill Bryson comments of Retford station, in his book Notes from a Small Island, that it is shown on railway maps in a typeface (and large filled circle graphic) marking it as equivalent to much more notable cities in northern England, and he therefore deemed it worth a visit.
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The title of the book is ostensibly a nodding reference to Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island, a travel book about Humphreys' native land, Britain.
She also quoted Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island: "Why, it's wonderful - a perfect little city... If you have never been to Durham, go there at once. Take my car. It's wonderful."