In this selection frommore than 20years of reporting and writing, Ian Jack takes us to a place of which there are now only memories and ruinsthe Great Britain that gave us the Industrial Revolution, a nation that led the world in feats of engineering, a Britain of empire, a place of vital cities, each with their own unique identity, and a country whose residual presence can still be found in the strangest corners of the world. These pieces set out to deal with contemporary Britainnational disasters, football matches, obesity, etc.but are drawn back in time, vexed by the question of what came...

In this issue of Granta Magazine, the theme is the sea and our relationship with it. It includes pieces by: James Hamilton-Paterson, on a lonely death in the Pacific; Julia Blackburn, on the lure of the mermaid; Neal Ascherson, on the death of the Black Sea; and Haruki Murakami.

Some travel is vital to the traveller. Sometimes you need to get home or get away. Sometimes this is far from easy. This issue of Granta contains compelling stories about journeys which need to be made. You might call it necessary travel writing.

Country Life: how it is lived, how it has changed, and how the changes are far from over. An issue that ranges from English fox- hunters to the rice-planters of the Ganges delta.