An anthology of poems about different aspects of Britain, from its rolling hills to its people to its motorways, will be launched on 1 April in Tunbridge Wells by publishers Paper Swans Press.

Topics covered in the Best of British anthology include a trawl of pub names, Boudica’s trail of destruction, the conjuring up of Viking York, Kentish lanes, William Hogarth exploring London in 2016, Nelson’s wheel at Portsmouth, Offa’s Dyke, the Outer Hebrides, the UK citizenship test, the Midlands, Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Brighton, Scots girls in Yarmouth, and London’s subterranean river Fleet.

Editors Sarah Miles and Jill Munro say: “The idea for this anthology – a poetic exploration of all things connected with the UK – was born in a different era, pre-Brexit vote and in a time when the Great British Bake-Off was still a BBC institution. How long ago that now seems …

“The initial aim was to cover every corner of the UK, in an attempt to poetically (and politically correctly) map every angle in its diversity and flavour; its landscapes – town, city, country, coastal, its people – young, old, native, immigrant. But it quickly became apparent this would be a near-impossible task. The focus then changed to simply selecting the best from the many excellent submissions – the best poetry of Britain, with little concern for any even-handed geographic weighting or coverage.”

The anthology will be launched at the George pub, a former coaching inn, at Mount Ephraim in Tunbridge Wells at 7.30pm. Paper Swans Press is a small, independent publisher of poetry and flash fiction, based in Tunbridge Wells.