Update Service

This is different from our ‘Upgrade Service’ (see below)

Drivers will hardly grumble if confronted with a beautiful new road not shown on our touring maps. But for walkers the picture is very different. Maybe a centuries-old trail has been bulldozed out of existence, or perhaps a landslide has sliced a hillside in half overnight? Even a walker using GPS will be in trouble.

Sunflower was the first publisher to introduce an Update service and since then we’ve been copied by other publishers. But we still think our service (available free online) is the most comprehensive.

Updates are available for every book in print and even for a few books that are currently out of print. Each comprises anything from a few hundred to a few thousand words. Where necessary, it also includes diagrams or sketch maps for clarification.

Typical entries might include route changes due to the construction of new roads or buildings. Or maybe warnings of landslides or storm damage; changes to bus or ferry services; paths blocked by landowners. Perhaps even alternative route suggestions and ideas for new walks.

The service enables you to download the most up-to-date information we have available just before you leave for your holiday. Note that Updates are not normally needed for new books until they have been on sale a few months.

Moreover, there are times when Updates remain unchanged for many months. Perhaps if no users write in to us and the author has not made a field survey.

Something you wish to add to an update?

Don’t assume that someone else will have already told us about something you discover! If you are sending us any information, please tell us which edition of the book you were using. Unless we know this, we may not be able to use your information.

To send us details, just e-mail us at: info@sunflowerbooks.co.uk. Please include the information in your e-mail rather than sending a separate attachment, since we normally do not open attachments from persons who are not known to us.

Online updates

Updates are available online free of charge. Note that Updates shown are normally for the current edition. When a new edition is published, the Updates for the previous edition may be left in position until information for the new edition becomes available.

How to find the Update you need

There is a link to the relevant update on the website page for each book we publish. Just click on the ‘Current Update’ tab.

Upgrade Service

It’s a false economy to use an out of date edition of a guide because so many things can change within a short while. New editions may sometimes appear to be pretty much the same as the previous edition, but there are always scores of alterations, especially to the walking routes and maps.

However, we realise that many users are reluctant to pay for a new guide when the one they own may have been bought only a year or two previously. So for our many loyal users, we have introduced a concessionary upgrade service for printed books only. For technical reasons, we cannot presently extend the offer to PDFs.

When you need the latest edition of a guide, we’ll offer you half the current price of the guide, credited against the post-paid price of the latest edition of the same guide.

How to upgrade your guide

First check that a latest edition is available for the guide you already have. Next check its price on our website – the price is clearly shown on every book page.

Then simply send the following to, Sunflower Books, PO Box 36160, London SW7 3WS:

• The original (not a photocopy) copyright page (page two) from your old edition
• A cheque for your new edition, payable to ‘Sunflower Books’
• The address to which you’d like your new edition sent

Please refer to the list below to determine the correct price of your new edition:

• for guides currently priced at £8.99, you pay £6.00
• for guides currently priced at £9.99, you pay £6.50
• for guides currently priced at £10.99, you pay £7.00
• for guides currently priced at £12.99, you pay £8.00
• for guides currently priced at £13.99, you pay £8.50
• for guides currently priced at £14.99, you pay £9.50
• for guides currently priced at £15.99, you pay £10.00
• for guides currently priced at £16.99, you pay £10.50

This offer is irrespective of where you bought your guide and what you paid for it.

We are offering the latest edition of the guide you return, not a different guide.

Remember to order early! We send out books by second class post on the same day as we receive your request, but your envelope could take as much as three weeks to reach us!

If you’d like your guide sent by first class post (UK only), please add £1 to the above prices. The steep rise in postage prices, coupled with the fact that our newer editions are wider and heavier, both contribute to the increased postal charges.