This winter, while you’re dreaming of going to England in the spring, Peter Ackroyd, following his successful London, has brought us Thames: The Biography (Nan A. Talese, $40), an entertaining and widely informative book all about the great river Thames.  There are fifteen chapters, filled with history, mythology, commerce, art, literature, and nature study.  Maps and illustrations are plentiful, and dipping in and out of Thames is like learning at every turn something delightful and surprising from an old friend who has seen and done it all.