So I managed to get my hands on a copy of Time Out’s new Manchester Shortlist guide. It’s a 200-page, 4×6.5 paperback, to be published on 5 April. Retail price is £6.99 but Amazon is already listing it for £5.59.

It’s a great product and a refreshingly detailed read. The three ‘itinerary’ features - Manchester: A Secret History, Manchester in… one hour/an afternoon/24 hours, and a Manchester Music Tour - are particularly interesting.

I’ve noticed a couple of typos (inevitable in a book of this size) and a tiny editorial faux pas: the Shopping section, edited by Rags To Bitches‘ Flic Everett, features - you guessed it - Rags To Bitches as its main image. Minor points, really.

Elsewhere, Arts & Leisure Editor Susie Stubbs is formerly of All Saints No Sinners magazine and Sights & Museums Editor Rob Haynes may or may not be Goldblade’s drummer. As predicted, the production team and even Editorial Director Ruth Jarvis are based in London.

I hear Time Out thinks the Shortlist has a shelflife of two years, though they expect to be reissuing it in 12 months. Have a read and let me know what you think.

One of the most popular items on the BBC News site today is a listing of the top 20 hidden tourist gems in the UK.

Filling the Manchester quota is the Mersey Valley, as recommended by Steve Mansfield:

Less than five miles from the centre of Manchester and intertwined with the southern stretch of the M60 orbital motorway, the Mersey Valley is a glorious green ribbon where you can go 10 miles without crossing a single road, and is the home to herons, cormorants, salmon and kingfishers. A very large number of Mancunians don’t even know its there - on second thoughts it’s such a glorious haven maybe I should keep quiet about it.

Taking in Chorlton Water Park, Sale Water Park, Urmston Meadows, Millgate Fields and Ivy Green, the area provides plenty of walking routes and hosts other events, such as bike rides.

Visit the official Mersey Valley site for more information, or the visitors centre in Sale Water Park itself. And check out Flickr for lots of beautiful photographs of the area.

Here’s an mp3 of BBC Radio 2’s Mark Radcliffe giving an audio guide to Manchester for the excellent Guardian Travel website.

He’s very enthusiastic about his ‘home town’ (he’s technically from Bolton), talking in particular about Albert Square, GMex, the Midland and Radisson hotels, Mr Sam’s Chop House, Royal Exchange and the Gay Village.

‘It’s a city you have to work to know,’ he says while sat in Briton’s Protection. Briton’s used to be next to an armed forces recruiting office apparently, which goes some way to explaining the name.

He also discusses the Northern Quarter and Affleck’s Palace in some detail, and Oxford Road (’very close to my heart’).

The podcast finishes, like many good Mancunian nights, in the Curry Mile. Mark talks about being an undergraduate in 1976 when there were only a few ‘unlicensed curry canteens’ in Rusholme. How times have changed.

I was actually looking for something else, but this stopframe video from eefee, a VJ and former Salford University student, was a good enough distraction. I particularly like the plane’s landing.

Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Looking at Buildings is a website by Pevsner Architectural Guides. The site includes a section to help you explore Manchester.

It’s interesting to see Manchester and surrounding neighbourhoods described from an architectural point of view. Buildings in focus include the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue on Cheetham Hill Road and the Portico Library, which I’ve mentioned before.

The site also includes two walking tours, of Manchester banks and Ancoats and Angel Meadow. There’s a page about Manchester’s ‘lost churches’ and a Manchester timeline, from 1400.

It’s amazing to think that Chetham’s School dates back to the 1450s, before even the Cathedral. Chets’ own website suggests buildings date back to 1421.