In common with the rest of the nation, the Vale of Evesham, Stratford and the Cotswolds are preparing to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

Indeed, Her Majesty is already touring the country in this, her 50th year as Monarch.

The Journal series is marking the anniversary by publishing a special souvenir book - Golden Years - which not only traces the Queen's life and times but also reflects what was happening locally during the half-century she has been on the throne.

Decade by decade, from the 1950s up to the early years of this millennium, events that have had an impact on the areas covered by the Journal are featured as are some of the people who made headlines, even if only briefly.

Royal visits to the area, whether by the Queen herself or the late Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, as well as the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and the Princess Royal, are remembered, with photographs.

Golden Years, compiled from the Journal's archives, has been designed to capture the spirit of each decade of the Queen's reign and includes listings of major national and international events alongside the memory-jerking events and personalities of the Vale, Stratford and Cotswolds.

The wide-ranging scope of Golden Years recalls the Queen's visit to Stratford for the town's 800th anniversary celebrations as well as the day Princess Margaret became the first senior Royal to stop off in Pershore since the days of Elizabeth I.

The Queen Mother was a frequent visitor to the RAF's Central Flying School, which used to be based at Little Rissington, and was its commandant-in-chief. This, again, is featured in Golden Years.

During the period covered by the book, many other celebrities from various walks of life came to the Journal's area. "Two-ton" Tessie O'Shea mingled with nurses in Evesham for a BBC broadcast, Alan Wicker interviewed members of the public in Moreton for the Tonight programme and Frankie Vaughan signed autographs in Stratford as he promoted the work of boys' clubs.

More recently, Match of the Day's Mark Lawrenson met school pupils in Chipping Norton, Rolf Harris collected an award from Stratford's Teddy Bear Museum for being voted as the celebrity that children thought most resembled a teddy and the Antiques Roadshow team valued items brought to them in Moreton.

Photographs of those occasions, and many more besides, are remembered in Golden Years.

Local people, too, have made their own marks in various ways. Vale swimmer, Joanne Deakins, earned a Commonwealth Games silver medal. Broadway furniture designer, Gordon Russell, was knighted for his service to the industry. Bidford's Michael Ball became a star of stage musicals and was runner-up in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Their achievements, as well as those of others, are among literally hundreds of stories recalled in Golden Years. Some are dramatic, some humorous, some poignant but each is a slice of modern local history.

The Golden Jubilee is a time for celebration but also an opportunity to look back. This is what Golden Years does, making it an ideal souvenir of a very special occasion.