Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

LITERATURE:THIS IS THE third, updated edition of a guide first published in 1981. It is a prodigious undertaking, carried out, for the most part, with wit and expertise. (I'll get to the exceptions in a minute), writes Patricia Craig.

From Adelstrop and Edward Thomas, to Youghal and William Trevor, it covers a vast accumulation of places and their literary associations, assembled region by region. What distinguishes it from the general run of guides, literary or otherwise, is the charm and quirkiness of some of its inclusions. If, for example, you need to know the eventual whereabouts of Dean Swift's cradle, you will find the information here; (Brede, East Sussex). It is pleasant to think of Lewis Carroll being commemorated at Llandudno by a statue of a white rabbit, and Anna Sewell, of Black Beauty fame, by a horse trough in Norwich. It may amuse you to envisage TS Eliot fleeing from a bull in Chipping Camden and landing in a blackberry bush; or Anthony Trollope shocking the villagers of South Harting in Sussex with his weekend parties.