New Excursions into English Poetry Series

'New Excursions into English Poetry' was a series of poetry anthologies with sympathetic illustrations, edited by the poets W.J. Turner and Sheila Shannon and published by Frederick Muller Ltd. from the latter half of the Second World War. Like the better known ‘Britain in Pictures’ books, the collection was conceived alongside a programme of morale-boosting publications that aimed to celebrate and preserve British culture at a time when the threat of German invasion was still very real. These wartime books emerged at a time of much broader cultural and geographical mapping of the country – from the beloved Shell Guides to the New Naturalist Library.

Announcing itself as ‘something of a new experiment’, New Excursions gave free rein to both illustrators (a roll-call of notable Neo-Romantics) and anthologers, bringing high-quality lithographic images directly alongside text. Seven volumes were produced in total: 'English, Scottish and Welsh Landscape 1700-c.1860' (John Piper, John Betjeman, Geoffrey Taylor, 1944); 'The Poet’s Eye’ (John Craxton and Geoffrey Grigson, 1944); 'Sea Poems' (Mona Moore and Myfanwy Piper, 1944); 'Soldiers’ Verse' (William Scott and Patric Dickinson, 1945); 'Poems of Death' (Michael Ayrton and Phoebe Pool, 1945); 'Travellers’ Verse' (Edward Bawden and Mary Gwyneth Lloyd Thomas, 1946); and 'Poems of Sleep and Dream’ (Robert Colquhoun and Carol Stewart, 1947).

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