Charles Dickens Pictures from Italy 384pp. Oxford University Press. £176 (US $230). In November 1843, burnt out and living beyond his means, Charles Dickens resolved on a year-long sabbatical in Europ

AS TRAVELLERS SEEK ESCAPE AND CONNECTION, A NEW WAVE OF TRIPS IS OFFERING BOOK-THEMED ITINERARIES WITH A SENSE OF PLACE

Jennifer Buckley Periodicals, Fiction and the Novel, 1700–1760 Ecologies of print 232pp. Edinburgh University Press. £95. Matthew P. Brown The Novel and the Blank A literary history of the book trades

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

Take a peek behind the scenes of our latest issue with the writers and photographers who made it happen