This is a history of York as you’ve never seen it, writes STEPHEN LEWIS of a new book about  the city’s ‘first 2000 years’.

THERE have been countless histories of York. It is a city with a long past and a lot of stories to tell.

Chances are the city's story has never been told quite like this, however.

York, The First 2000 Years uses a series of great original cartoons by local man Richard Aitken to illustrate key scenes from York's past. Blue Badge guide Mike Barber provides some pithy words to accompany them.

One early cartoon shows a troop of bedraggled Roman soldiers queuing up to register for accommodation at the 'place of the yew trees'. The soldiers are part of the much-travelled Ninth (Hispana) Legion – one soldier is carrying a suitcase plastered in travel stickers from Gaul, Germania, Judea and Hispania.

"When the Ninth ... arrived in the North to sort out the marital differences of the Brigantes, they needed somewhere to sleep between rounds of violence," writes Mike, breezily. "The place they chose to set up camp was where the rivers Ouse and Foss joined..."

Fast forward 800 years and another great cartoon shows a band of Vikings trudging menacingly through a muddy, waterlogged city. The sky is black with rain, and jagged forks of lightning narrowly miss a wooden Minster in the background.

It was All Saints Day, November 1, in the Anglo-Saxon city of Eoforwic, writes Mike. The whole city was at prayer. "Not surprisingly on a public holiday in England, the weather was foul. The citizens were quite accepting of the thunderstorm which came their way that day but they were not expecting a flood of Vikings!"

There are great cartoons illustrating the building of York Minster (the poor stonemasons in Richard's drawing are hampered by pesky pigeons which insist on leaving droppings in their hair and eyes); Shambles' medieval heyday as the street of butchers; and highwayman Dick Turpin biting off more than he can chew in a robbery which goes horribly wrong. "London-York Express" says a sign on the back of the stagecoach. "Only 4 Days!"

A cartoon of raceday on Knavesmire shows a trio of women dressed up to the nines in short dresses, large hats and the highest of high heels, while rain spits down out of a thundery sky. It gives Mike a chance to relate the history of this unique patch of common land south west of the city centre. "Knave is a Saxon word for a person of low standing – basically a peasant," he writes. "Mire is a boggy place and if you see the Knavesmire after a few days' rain you can see it was well named."

The pair came up with the idea for the book after meeting while working on a new open-topped bus tour of Leeds.

Mike, as an experienced Blue Badge tour guide, had been commissioned to write the words for the tour commentary. Richard, at the time, was working for bus company Transdev.

"He seemed to be a sensible chap, and we worked well together," says Mike, 67.

Mike's initial idea was to work with 61-year-old Richard to produce a series of guidebooks. But he realised they would need to be different somehow.

When Richard, who had always liked drawing, sent him one of his trademark cards, the idea for the cartoon book was born.

The pair put their heads together, came up with a list of key moments in York's past – and the rest, as they say, is history. Although not only history. This is, don't forget, a book entitled "York, The First 2000 Years."

The Roman city was founded in AD71. So in his final cartoon, Richard cheekily looks ahead to the year 2071 – a time when York has air taxis, air-cars, and its own subway system.

You'll have to wait another 57 years, sadly, to check out how accurate a forecast that is...

•  York, The First 2000 Years by Richard Aitken and Mike Barber is printed by Fulprint, priced £5.99. It is available from yorkthefirst2000years.co.uk (plus £1.50 p&p) or from several outlets in York, including VisitYork Visitor Information Centre, The Castle Museum, The Yorkshire Museum, Jorvik Viking Centre and Something Different in Shambles.