Catherine Clarke A History of England in 25 Poems400pp. Allen Lane. £25. Mark Forsyth Rhyme and ReasonA short history of poetry and people (forpeople who don’t usually read poetry)368pp. Allen & Unwin

You wouldn’t guess from the cover design—three songbirds silhouetted over swatches of picturesque Englishness—but Catherine Clarke’s A History of England in 25 Poems hits one of its sweet spots with a

The greatest home-grown products and inventions taking on the world

They punctuate the British landscape like few other buildings - Clare Hunt looks at the not-so humble cottage

Tucked away in the south-east corner of the UK, within easy reach from London, Kent has long been known as ‘the garden of England’: a patchwork of rolling hills, lush fields and leafy vineyards, dotte

In the early 1940s, the Royal Mint replaced the familiar image of a portcullis on the threepenny coin with a thrift plant. This was part of the government’s campaign reminding the public of the need f