First published in 1977, this classic reference work is a gazetteer of almost 2,000 places - villages, towns, cities, and landscapes - in Britain and Ireland detailing their connections with the lives of famous writers. It invites the reader to explore the places where their favourite writers - from Jane Austen to Philip Pullman - were born, lived, were educated, worked, and drew inspiration. The entries elegantly interweave information with anecdote and quotation, to build a vivid picture of the day-to-day lives of the writers.

The Guide is the ideal resource and companion for any literay pilgrimage in Britain or Ireland, and for the armchair literary traveller. New to this edition are special feature entries on writers particularly associated with places, including the Brontes, Walter Scott, and James Joyce, contributed by high-profile authors including Margaret Drabble and John Sutherland. The Guide also provides an index of author names, with mini biographies, enabling the reader to track down all the places associated with their favourite writers.

It is stunningly illustrated throughout, with colour plates, contemporary black-and-white photographs, and beautifully illustrated maps of major literary cities such as Bath, Edinburgh, Dublin, and London, and boasts a fresh new design.

Daniel Hahn is a freelance editor, researcher, and writer. Since 1996 he has worked at Shakespeare's Globe, writing and editing books, and researching, scripting, and curating exhibitions. His publications include a narrative history of London, The Tower Menagerie (Simon and Schuster, 2003) and the award-winning Ultimate Book Guide (A & C Black, 2004). He was Margaret Drabble's key researcher and writer on The Companion to English Literature 6/e, and was assistant editor on the Oxford Concise Companion to English Literature and on OUP's Good Fiction Guide. He is also Editorial Director of the forthcoming million-pound Department for Culture, Media, and Sport project, Icons of England.

Nicholas Robins is Head of Periodicals at Shakespeare's Globe, a role that includes editing Around the Globe, a membership magazine dedicated to all aspects of Shakespeare and the theatre of his time, and the Globe theatre programmes. He has written for the London Magazine and is a regular contributor to the TLS. His literary guide book Walking Shakespeare's London was published by New Holland in 2004.

Review from previous edition:

'the finest reference book of its kind: a brilliant and meticulous interweaving of anecdote and quotation ... Permanent magic.'