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

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

Without the generosity of one remarkable man, Sir James Roberts, the Brontë Parsonage Museum might never have come to be. Roberts’ own rags-to-riches story sounds like something from a book. He was bo

Alice Loxton EleanorA 200-mile walk in search of England’slost queen352pp. Pan Macmillan. £22. Many are commemorated in stone, but few so grandly as Eleanor of Castile (d. 1290). Following her unexpec

Review of reviews: Books

Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is set to be the most talked-about film of the year