Every book lover has, at some point or the other, wished to inhabit the spaces, however briefly, that their favourite authors or characters have dwelled in. This desire is at the core of Caroline Taggart’s THE BOOK LOVER’S BUCKET LIST: A TOUR OF GREAT BRITISH LITERATURE (British Library, £16.99). To see the places that one has only imagined while reading a book come to life is a magical experience.
Taggart is a master storyteller who is intimately aware of a reader’s psyche. She takes us through the more famous literary destinations — Shakespeare’s Globe on the bank of the Thames and the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B, Baker Street to cite just two examples — along with other important sites, such as the Craiglockhart War Hospital where Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen met and Bath, where Jane Austen and Mary Shelley almost became neighbours. There are anecdotes galore for literary enthusiasts of every stripe.