As a country bobby, Mike Pannett never quite knew what to expect when he was pounding his North Yorkshire beat.

He might find himself in a high-speed car chase along the A64, or visiting a family in the wake of a domestic tragedy. Or he might find himself in a farmhouse kitchen having a cup of tea and a slice of cake as a farmer told him about the strangers with dogs he’d spotted in his fields after the sun had gone down.

Life for a rural police officer was a varied one, and Mike had favourite spots dotted around his patch where he’d park up, get out his notebook and think things through.

“When I first returned North I lived up the hill, above Leavening. No matter what else is happening, I only have to lean on this gate, looking across the Vale of York towards the distant Pennines, and my mood lifts,” he muses.

In Mike Pannett’s Yorkshire, the former bobby explores the places that appear in his series of books about life on a rural beat. From the Jolly Farmers at Leavening, where Mike enjoyed some good times with characters such as Algy, Walter and Soapy, who feature in his books, to the weir at Kirkham, where Mike dealt with a couple of students who got into difficulty after “borrowing” a boat.

York-born Mike joined the Metropolitan Police in 1988, serving on murder and riot squads before transferring to North Yorkshire a decade later. He became a rural beat officer and later a wildlife officer, retiring after 20 years in the force.

His light-hearted books, inspired by his experiences of rural policing, have led to him being affectionately known as the “James Herriot of policing”.

The author of Not On My Patch, Lad and Up Beat and Down Dale takes readers on a journey around his beloved county, revisiting the real-life places behind his best-selling books.

“My patch embraced 600 square miles of the most beautiful landscapes the county has to offer,” says Mike. “Many a working day would involve a drive through the Howardian Hills or up onto the moors. When it was time for a break I might park up on Sutton Bank and enjoy one of the finest views in all of England.

“North Yorkshire has a place deep in my heart. I love it for its natural beauty, for the diversity of its landscape, for the space and solitude I find there – and for the characters it produces, the warmth of the welcome I receive in the tea-shops, the village pubs, the market-places.”

This book takes quite a personal journey, and John Potter’s stunning photographs bring each place to life, from the wintry splendour of Castle Howard in the shimmering snow to the dramatic Rosedale valley beneath a blustery cloudy sky.

As well as dramatic landscapes and lovely old buildings, Mike includes places that will mean something to anyone who has read his books. A picture of Ganton Golf Club will prompt memories of the time he ended up crawling across the 18th green in search of paw-prints that may, or may not, have been left by the “Ryedale Panther”.

Mike devotes a chapter to the places he visited during his time as a wildlife officer. With poaching and the huge trade in illegal animal products thriving, part of his job was to be aware of the birds and animals that lived in the area, like the deer in Hovingham Woods and the owl he found lying in the road, which he took to a woman in Malton known as the Badger Lady.

Leafing through the book is like taking a journey to the places Mike writes about. Fans of ITV’s Heartbeat will recognise Scripp’s Funeral Services and Aidensfield Garage, which Mike visited during his early days on the patch. Spending time on duty at Goathland, where Heartbeat was filmed, brought him into contact with his future wife, Ann.

While some images capture stunning views of rural North Yorkshire, others offer a more human element to the county. In Malton, crowds gather for the Christmas market, and there’s a lovely picture of the front of Ralph Yates & Sons, a 150-year-old shop in the town selling everything “from boots and raincoats to garden and farming implements, nuts and bolts, kitchen pots, pet food, seeds and corn”.

“You can get a ride-on lawnmower, a quad bike, a yard brush and a pair of wellies – or if you fancy a pig’s ear they have a bin of them by the door. Upstairs you can have your bicycle fixed while you get your hair cut,” writes Mike. “I was always finding reasons to go in there and chew the fat.”

Factfile

  • Mike Pannett’s Yorkshire is published by Dalesman, priced £9.99, and is available in bookshops
  • For more about Yorkshire attractions, visit yorkshire.com