Often called the -Heart of the Midlands-, Nottingham has given the world Robin Hood, Raleigh bikes, John Player cigarettes and Boots the chemists - and it was here that Ibuprofen first saw the light of a petri dish to the benefit of a million hangovers. As if that wasn-t enough, Alan Sillitoe and D. H. Lawrence went to school here, Lord Byron-s ancestral pile is just on the city-s outskirts, and it was here that King Charles I raised his battle standard at the start of the English Civil War - though precious few rallied to the cause. Local heroes include the cantankerous Brian Clough, who led Nottingham Forest Football Club to a pair of European Cups, the fast bowler Harold Larwood, who famously bowled Donald Bradman during the Body Line Ashes of the 1930s, and the charismatic William Booth, who founded a worldwide movement, the Salvation Army.
Despite all this and much more, Nottingham wears its charms lightly, avoiding the tourist crowds, but this fascinating city has much t
