THE OXFORD ILLUSTRATED LITERARY GUIDE TO GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND: SECOND EDITION

London: BCA [by arrangement with Oxford University Press. Very Good/Very Good. 1992. Reprint. Hard Cover. 4to 0192129880 BCA EDITION. Heavy book but will be posted for the standard charge within the UK. Dust jacket complete. Black cloth with bright gilt titling on spine. Slight bump to top corners. No ownership inscription. Numerous Colour & b/w Illustrations / Photographs / 13 Maps. 322 pages clean and tight. When the Oxford Literary Guide first appeared, it was described by The Times as the `finest reference book of its kind' and the Scotsman as `a lovely book in which to dip and dream'. The reviewer in the Times Literary Supplement reported that he had road-tested the book on a journey from London `to the depths of Herefordshire, which normally takes under four hours, and did not arrive for four days'. Listing hundreds of places in Britain and Ireland, the Illustrated Literary Guide gives details of their connections with the lives of famous writers. The many illustrations, both colour and black and white, are of writers, their houses, or the landscapes associated with them. This second edition has provided the opportunity for new information, often supplied by readers, to be incorporated into the text. Living authors are still excluded, but altogether i 37 new authors and i 05 new places have been added, and the Welsh and Scottish representation has been increased. There are also new illustrations for the reader to enjoy. A wealth of curious information and entertaining anecdotes is to be found in the Guide: when John Evelyn saw a painting in the chapel of All Souls College, Oxford, he wrote in his Diary that it `seems too full of nakeds for a Chapell'; Charlotte Bront~ was so overcome by her first glimpse of the sea at Bridlington that she burst into tears; and Sydney Smith, essayist and wit, rector of Combe Florey, Somerset, described his neighbours as `very much like other people's neighbours; their remarks are generally of a meteorological nature'. Arranged for easy reference, with maps and an index of writers, this book will help the reader, as one reviewer put it, `to wallow unashamedly in a rich nostalgia for what is called our literary heritage'. .