Audio guidebook company A Stroll Back in Time is about to take on the American market.

The East Preston-based firm produces dramatised historical strolls through key tourist areas of the UK on audiotapes and CDs.

One of its initial targets was the North American market and, with the help of the West Sussex Enterprise Centre and the Department of Trade and Industry's Trade Partners organisation, it has successfully broken into the market using the British Embassy and consulates.

Managing director Jim Simpson said: "We are now receiving regular orders from both the United States and Canada via our web site.

"Our philosophy is to sell to people before they leave home, when they are travelling, at the airport, when they arrive and at their hotels and other retail outlets when they are in the UK."

The guides are not only for tourists from overseas. They are so entertaining and informative that anyone who loves history will find something of interest.

Mr Simpson recently released a Southwark stroll that covers the south bank of the Thames from Tower Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge.

At the launch were many people with an interest in the area's history, including the Southwark Lib-Dem MP Simon Hughes.

There are currently four strolls available, Bath, Westminster York and Southwark, with more planned for the near future, including some on Sussex history.

Mr Simpson decided to start the business because he was disillusioned with conventional travel guides.

He gave up his job of 30 years with London Underground to have the time to devote to the project.

Each stroll has a central character who "meets" the visitor at a start point and accompanies them to a number of points where dramatisations with actors, special-effects and music bring history to life, changing the stroll into entertainment on the move.

Mr Simspon said: "I'm an independent-minded traveller. I have always tended to do my own thing when visiting historical location as I've generally found with group guided tours that you tend to follow the crowd, aiming to be near the guide as he or she delivers their monologue. It always seemed a bit hurried.

"Bus tours and other alternatives just did not engage me. I wanted something entertaining and historially accurate.

"I also became aware that for the wheelchair user none of the options was simple to use."