The author of a best-selling book which ranked Didcot in a list of "crap towns" admitted the town had gone up in his estimation.

Sam Jordison wrote Crap Towns , which offered people the chance to sound off about places like Croydon, Luton and Didcot.

The results were published in 2003, and Didcot was ranked 20th as some townsfolk reckoned it was not the greatest place to live.

But Mr Jordison, 30, who grew up in Morecombe, Lancashire, agreed to revisit Didcot last week to check out the place berated in his book.

In his first book, Mr Jordison suggested Didcot existed because of "a void - the railway junction between the London-West coast and the Oxford lines."

He was given a tour of the area by MP Ed Vaizey and Alison Adams, director of Didcot First, a group set up to change people's perception of the railway town.

He stopped for canapes at Splitz in Wantage Road, the first restaurant in the town to be awarded an AA rosette, and visited the Northmoor Trust, before taking a tour around the soon-to-be-completed arts centre.

Mr Jordison said he would be surprised if Didcot made the list a second time round.

He said: "I definitely feel more positive about the town, but I still stand by my reasons that it needs work.

"But I had a very enjoyable time and I was really encouraged by quite a few things.

"Didcot First is doing really well and the new arts centre looks like it will be a fun place to go.

"The Orchard Centre was the one thing that I was most ambivalent about because it is mostly chain stores, parasite shops, which offer no long term benefit to the community.

"The Northmoor Trust was fantastic, I really enjoyed the view, and the food at Splitz was very nice.

"It will be a few years until the next book, but Didcot might just escape."

Mr Vaizey said: "He came, he saw and he was impressed by what Didcot had to offer. I think he is now an undisputed fan of our great town."