I have a great book called "The Sunday Telegraph Guide to Commuterland - Finding a Home within Reach of London." It was given to me a couple of years ago by someone on this board and I'm happy to pass it along. Published in 2004 and yellow-highlighted by the 1st owner. I found it really helpful in narrowing down our search to several lines, then several towns, before we chose where to live. Has info on housing prices (obviously somewhat out of date, but you can still get relative feel) and commute times.
It is ideal if you are choosing between towns/areas to live along various commuter rail lines 30-120 minutes outside of London. It is organized by mainline station in London (Liverpool, Fenchurch, Kings Cross, etc.) and then goes out each rail line and describes each station/town along it in a few paragraphs to give you a feel for the type of community.
It does not have any information on London neighborhoods, so no use if you want to live within London itself.
Please post if you'd like it and I'll pm you for your address. I can mail it to a UK address, or if you're in the US, I'll send it back to the US with my mom who's visiting next month to mail to you.
