Welcome Graham, Bit late in the season now to be getting alongside beekeepers as the season is coming to a close and apart from varroa treatments and feeding there's not going to be much going on but - we have a few members in your neck of the woods and it's a good time to join a beekeeping association somewhere near you - there will be meetings and talks over winter and a beginners course in the New Year .. plenty of time for some reading. A good book to get you some idea of the basics is Bees at the Bottom of the Garden by Alan Campion. Not really a text book - it's an easy read and provided a flavour of what it's like to keep bees.
Plus of course., several months of dipping into thousands of past and present threads on here ... probably better than any book !