Shakespeare's Gardens by Jackie Bennett (Frances Lincoln, £25).

This delightful coffee table book tells the story of the gardens that William Shakespeare knew as a boy and a man.

The Bard was born and lived in Straford-upon-Avon for much of his 52 years, finding fame as a playwright in London but returning to his home town in later life.

A man whose vocabulary and interests were huge, references to flowers and plants appear numerous times in his plays, such as in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: 
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight.

This book, produced in associaiton with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, focuses on the gardens Shakespeare knew so well, from his birthplace at Henley Street, to his childhood playground at Mary Arden's Farm, to his courting days at Anne Hathaway's Cottage and his final home at New Place.

Shakespeare's Gardens brings together new photographs of the gardens along with archive images of flowers, old herbals and sixteenth century illustrations.

It is a lovely book that is a visual delight and also illuminates many references in the famous plays.