A book detailing a 600-mile trek taken by a Cumbrian MP along the frontier that divides England and Scotland has scooped a top award.

The Marches, written by Penrith and the Border MP Rory Stewart, has been crowned Hunter Davies Lakeland Book of the Year for 2017.

The book, chronicles the 30-day journey taken by Mr Stewart, describes how his 96-year-old father regularly ambushes him by car as he goes and together they reflect on their lives and the landscapes that they have encountered.

A total of 68 books - all published in the last year and predominantly about Cumbria - were entered into the awards. A list of winners were revealed at a special literary lunch at Armathwaite Hall, on Bassenthwaite Lake, yesterday.

Three judges spent months pouring over the entries. Many submissions were made by well-known authors including the poet Helen Farish, Marie-Elsa Bragg - daughter of Lord Melvyn Bragg - and Mr Davies's late wife, Margaret Forster.

Mr Davies, who founded the awards, said: “I thought at first Rory's book was about the French political party, but blow me it is all about our native heath, plus his dad, and is one of the most original books we have had in 33 years of the prize”.

Meanwhile Robert Gamble's The Lakeland Dales took the Striding Edge Productions Prize for Guides and Places and Nowt but a Fleein' Thing - by Al Phizacklea and Mike Cocker - was awarded the Latitude Press Prize for Illustration and Presentation.

The Zeffirellis Prize for People and Business was awarded to Donald Campbell - An Odyssey in Speed by David de Lara and How to Measure a Cow, by Margaret Foster won the Bookends Prize for Arts and Literature.

The Marches also won the Bill Rollinson Prize for Landscape and Tradition.