Spring Jaunts

From his New Yorker pieces that cover 20 years of reporting, Bailey has selected five delightful personal adventures. He tramps round the Isle of Wight, recalling childhood summers; he walks the New Hampshire coastline (all 18 miles) in a single day; returns with his wife to the Cote d'Azur for a second honeymoon. In the company of poet Seamus Heaney, Bailey takes a tour through Irish history as they walk along the River Boyne from Trim to Drogheda. The chef d'oeuvre of this collection is ""The Coracle, Eustace and the River.'' The profile of the aged Shropshireman who makes these small, fragile craft gives a wonderful portrait of rural England; then Bailey sets out in his own coracle on the River Severn for his most hazardous jaunt, proving that adventures do not have to be exotic to be satisfying. (June 20)