Coleford sustains its reputation as a mini-Book Town with a Christmas Fair to follow its summer Words Festival. This Thursday (December 3) the street containing the Forest Bookshop will be closed to traffic, the St John Street shops being open from 5.30–8.30pm.

"There will be street entertainment, stalls, food, carols, and more" says Bookshop owner Doug McLean. "Our own shop will be full of Christmas stock, including a new range of toys, mugs and gifts. We will also be opening late until 7pm every Thursday until December 17."

A group of local writers set the scene the previous evening with a launch of their collaborative effort the night before Thursday's event. Forest writers who meet at the Angel Hotel's nightclub bar have brought out a daring little book of sex stories.

Inspired by the Manhattan-based series Sex and the City, they have titled the book Sex and the Forest (£5.99). Ten writers, five men and five women, have brought their writing skills to bear upon this delicate subject-matter.

The book contains a selection of short stories which celebrate the act of sex wherever it takes place – in the forest, a hotel bedroom, a flight of steps and even out in space. The result, they say, is "a raunchy little book which just steers clear of pornography on the one hand and cliché on the other". The authors will be at the Bookshop on Wednesday (December 2) from 6.30pm.

Doug McLean is also bringing out a reprint of Collected Poems 1912-1957 by Forest poet F W Harvey (1888-1957). The original edition Doug published in 1982 is now so rare that only a single copy is offered on the best-known secondhand books website – at £150.

Hartpury-born Harvey was a prisoner of war during World War I before resuming life as a solicitor. "From a crude drawing of ducks that a fellow prisoner had scrawled on the wall of his solitary confinement POW cell came the inspiration for his best known poem beginning, 'From troubles of the world I turn to ducks . . .', Doug notes.

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It's been a good year for crime. Adding to the output of the Forest's prolific murder mystery author Andrew Taylor, whose new book is due to be published in September 2010, are two Wye Valley crime writers.

Brockweir resident G F (Gordon) Newman is a veteran TV scriptwriter, famous for the TV series Judge John Deed and as creator of crime series of Law and Order. This year he published his first crime novel, Crime and Punishment (Quercus, £18.99).

At 700 pages and covering the decades from the 1950s to the late 1970s, it's an epic all round. "Newman describes the rise of a great London crime dynasty with more than a passing resemblance to the Krays, and in doing so gives us a dramatically jaundiced slice of British history from 1951 to the coming of Thatcher," Spectator crime novel review editor Andrew Taylor summarises for the Review. "It's powerful, violent and ambitious stuff, as you would expect."

The smash hit of the year was provided by young barrister M R (Matthew) Hall, who knew the Wye Valley well before settling at Whitebrook in 2003 with journalist wife Patricia Carswell and their two sons. "I'd always wanted to write books, but could never take the time out of paid work to do it," Matt told the Review earlier this year.

"My first opportunity arose in 2007 after a show I'd written for BBC1 called New Street Law finished I secured a three-book deal with Macmillan." The Coroner (Macmillan, 450pp, hardback £10, and recently out in Pan paperback £6.99), featuring Tintern-living Jenny Cooper – small-town lawyer turned coroner – was a smash hit.

Literally so in that Google shows an astonishing 125 million "hits" on his entry. Also among his peers, the book having been shortlisted for the UK Gold Dagger award as best crime/thriller of 2009.

"Set in Bristol and in the Wye Valley, it centres on a woman struggling with her private demons while discharging her duties as a Bristol coroner," Andrew Taylor summarises. "A strong narrative and fascinating details about the coroner's quirkily independent  role mingle with a disturbing investigation into teenage prostitution, drugs and an establishment cover-up." Matt's second novel in the series, The Disappeared, is published next month.

Of his own literary schedule, Andrew tells the Review that, "I'm currently working on a novel called The Anatomy of Ghosts (Michael Joseph/Penguin), set in 18th century Cambridge. There's another historical thriller in the pipeline, plus the ninth Lydmouth novel."

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Coleford's resident children's laureate Shoo Rayner tells us that, "My ancient – now in its twentieth edition - Christmas Stocking Joke Book has been re-covered and re-released.

"My latest series, Monster Boy, is set in a place not unlike the Forest. Monster Boy lives at a place not unlike

Pedalabikeaway near a town called Lydmouth. Andrew Taylor will include some of my place names if he ever writes another Lydmouth series. Post modernism in the Forest?"

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You don't have to be a walker to admire a new Dean Walks book, as its healthy Forest Bookshop sales testify. While offering Fourteen scenic walks in and around an ancient forest, Exploring Historic Dean (Fineleaf Editions, 150pp, £9.95), John Sheraton and mapper Rod Goodman also offer a historical guide to most of the Forest's noteworthy locations and buildings.

After a 20 year gap following his Look Back at Norchard (reprint £9), Dr Graham J Field has produced Bixslade Valley – A Look through the Ages booklet (106pp, £9). A thorough overview of this Cannop Valley side-valley, still with working coal mine and quarries, it is illustrated with his own sketch plans and photos.

Forest of Dean-based archeologist Stephen Yeates has produced a second book exploring Celtic and subsequent Gloucestershire tribes, their religions and possible continuity with Christian churches in the Saxon "Dark Ages". The Tribe of Witches – The Religion of the Dobunni and Hwicce (Oxbow Books, 2008) is deservedly reprinted (at the more reasonable price of £19.95).

A Dreaming for the Witches: A Recreation of the Dobunni Primal Myth (Oxbow Books, £19.95) continues his interpretation of place names, topography and ancient literary fragments to establish a portrait of their cults and pantheons.

Former Victoria County History editor for Gloucestershire Dr Nicholas Herbert has authored Road Travel and Transport in Georgian Gloucestershire (Carreg Ltd, Ross-on-Wye, 232pp, 55 illustrations, £20), illustrated by extracts from the Gloucester Journal newspaper. The new VCH Volume XII, Newent and May Hill, is due in April.

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Chepstow too is nowadays a mini-book town, with The Chepstow Bookshop arranging a busy year-round programme of celebrity author talks events at the Church Street Drill Hall and book signings at the Bookshop itself.

A fortnight ago Andy McNab, SAS hero and author of the best-selling Bravo Two Zero Andy McNab talked about his new novel Exit Wound and the new collection of courage from the Afghanistan frontline, Spoken from the Front. Later that week, former British Army soldier Simon Weston OBE was at the Chepstow Bookshop signed copies of his new children's book Nelson to the Rescue.

The following Monday's (sold out) Drill Hall event was enlivened by acerbic Daily Mail parliamentary sketch writer and theatre critic Quentin Letts introducing his 50 People Who B******d Up Britain.

This Saturday at the Bookshop (4pm), BBC Wales Weatherman Derek Brockway returns to Chepstow to sign copies of his new children's book Duck and Starfish Make a Splash (£5.99). In the evening at the Drill Hall (7.30pm) Simon Armitage and Owen Sheers present "Poetry on The Border" (tickets £12, £10 concs).

At the Bookshop on Monday December 14 at midday, entertainer, fundraiser and BBC Radio Wales presenter Chris Needs sign copies of his new book And There's More. Festive spirit is ladled out for the talk of The Wine Adventurer Francis Gimblett, with tickets for the Drill Hall event (Thursday 17th, 7.30pm, £3 each) including a tasting of four different wines.

Christmas jollity is guaranteed for that Saturday at the Drill Hall (7.30pm, £6 – with £3 redeemable against the price of the featured book). Amiable jester (and ex-MP) Gyles Brandreth recounts tales from his life at school, in the theatre, on television, in journalism and in politics, as more fully related in his new book Something Sensational to Read on the Train.

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It's good to see The Story of Ross by Pat Hughes and Heather Hurley (Logaston Press, £12.95) re-launched last month, having been originally published in 1999. At Logaston's characteristic bargain price for a handsome semi-large format book, it describes how Ross emerged as a distinct settlement overlooking the River Wye after the Saxon invasions, evolving from the Iron Age hill fort on Chase Hill and the nearby Roman settlement of Ariconium.

Hurley husband Jon keeps equally active with the release in a fortnight's time of The Weighing Room (Legend's Press, £9.50), a follow up to his novel It's Late Very Early (Ogma Publications, 2004). Doing the honours at the launch party at the authors' Hoarwithy home is Matt Hall, who seems to get everywhere.