Villages around Swale are as "chocolate box" pretty as any to be found in other parts of the country.

So says author, historian and archaeologist John Clancy who has set out to prove his point with his latest book, Swale Villages Through Time.

The book, featuring almost 200 old and new pictures of the area's villages, is the second in a series of four the 70-year-old has been commissioned to produce.

The first, Milton Regis Through Time, was published last year.

Mr Clancy spent almost a year on his latest book, logging on to internet auction sites to bid for postcards, in between studying at his Sittingbourne home for an archaeology Masters degree.

Mr Clancy said he had aimed to capture the changes in Swale's villages over the centuries and show they were on a par with more well-known "pretty as a picture" places such as the Cotswolds, the Yorkshire Dales and Devon.

In his book - his 10th - Mr Clancy highlights many of Swale's village and hamlets, using the postcards to illustrate their agricultural heritage.

Moving into the 21st century, he describes how the villages became shadows of their former selves, with changing farming practices and the move towards commuting into towns and cities to work.

Pushed to choose his favourite Swale village, Mr Clancy was sitting on the fence.

"I don't think I've got a favourite - they have all got something special about them," he said.

Mr Clancy, who was born and bred in Milton and is a member of Sittingbourne Heritage Museum, has started work on the third book in the series, The Isle of Sheppey Through Time, which he hopes to have published by the end of the year.

"It's bubbling along in the background," he said.

And waiting in the wings is the fourth - Kent's Piers, Proms and Jetties.

• Swale Villages Through Time, price £14.99, is available from outlets, including Sittingbourne Heritage Museum, East Street, its shop in The Forum, and Nickel Books, Sittingbourne High Street.