A new book from the the doctor and prize-winning writer Gavin Francis, exploring how bridges unite and divide us, and taking in history, geopolitics, literature and psychology, will be published next September by Canongate, The Bookseller reported this week.

Francis said he had been thinking about the themes of the book, titled The Bridge Between Worlds: A Brief History of Connection, since he first learned to read with The Ladybird Book of Bridges. “Each chapter is a bridge, and each bridge is a doorway into exploring the beauty and restless energy of humanity’s love of connections, but also its fear of them, all around the globe. It’s also a 40-year memoir of travel.”

Next August, Canongate will also republish one of his earlier books, Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession, in paperback, and add his debut, True North: Travels in Arctic Europe, to its modern-classics list, The Canons.