Franz Kafka died in 1924, when he was not yet forty. During his life he published only seven small books, but he left behind three unfinished novels and a mass of stories, reflections and personal writings which were published after his death. His no...

Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of romantic poet Lord Byron and his highly educated wife, Anne Isabella, is sometimes called the world's first computer programmer and has become an icon for women in technology. But how did a young wom...

Wilfred Owen is the poet of pity, the voice of the soldier maimed, blinded, traumatised and killed, not just in the Great War, but in all wars since, so resonant has his message become. Although he saw only five of his poems published in his lifetime...

In July 1917, a young man in the 12th East Surrey Regiment kept a journal of his experiences at the front. This poignant and moving account is narrated with a keen sense of observation, bringing to life the sights, sounds, smells, and horrors of war....

These are the memoirs of a cultural icon. Here, told for the first time, is the story of the formative years of Sir Roy Strong, "a young man from nowhere who went somewhere". For nearly half a century, Roy Strong has been at the forefront of the ar...

Published to mark the 200th anniversary of Dickens's birth, this book celebrates the greatest of English novelists by illustrating some of his abiding preoccupations. Prompted by quotations from the novels and other writings, each themed chapter expl...

With complete transcripts of the distress messages, "Titanic Calling" vividly brings to life the voices of the individuals in this drama, retelling the legendary story as it was first heard. The narrative begins with warnings of ice, including sever...

Few families enjoy such a remarkable reputation for their contribution to the literature and intellectual life of Britain as the Godwins and the Shelleys. Yet this reputation was shaped in a subtle way by the selective release of literary manuscripts...

A niece of Jane Austen and a novelist herself, Catherine Hubback was fifty-two years old when she left England for America. She travelled to California on the Transcontinental Railroad and settled in Oakland, on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay...

Equipped with a commission from Henry VIII, John Leland began to record the contents of English monastic libraries in 1533 before they were dispersed. His booklists were compiled as the primary resources for his comprehensive dictionary of British wr...