Customer Reviews

A really interesting reference guide. - By: SB, 27 Jun 2008
The new edition of The Oxford Guide to Literary Britain & Ireland is an indispensable travel companion, both for explorers & armchair travellers alike. Nearly 2,000 places - villages, towns, cities, & landscapes - are referred to, inviting readers to explore connections with their favourite writers, from where they were born & lived, to where they worked & found inspiration for their writing. In this new edition you can find living authors, as well as all the classics, so from Chaucer, to Jane Austen, to Philip Pullman, you can take a literary journey through history to the present day.

The book is neatly organised by region, & then indexed by writers & place names so it's quite easy to find what you're looking for. Glancing through the index an entry for Yarntonin Oxfordshire caught my eye, so I looked it up to find that one of A. E. Coppard's poems, `The Sapling' was written to commemorate his gift of an acacia to Agnes Evans of Yarnton, for her new house. You'll find lots of information about the literary greats but it's very refreshing to see mention of much smaller places & lesser-known connections too. For examplein the Midlands, find out that Charles Dickens gave readingsin Leamington Spain 1855 & 1862, poet Philip Larkin was bornin Radford, Coventry, & Spenser is believed to have written part of his famous The Faerie Queenein a roomin Canons Ashby House, Northamptonshire. John Buchan, best known for The Thirty-Nine Steps, lived for some years at the Manor Housein Elsfield, Oxfordshire & his grave can be foundin the village churchyard. There are so many snippets to choose from, wherever you live or travel to.

The whole book is a pure joy to dip into, browse, & explore from region to region & I can recommend it.