The Underground Library
As the Nazis enclosed Warsaw’s Jewish quarter in a ghetto, a librarian set up a secret children’s library.
Literature
Echo Chamber
Dinner parties in the ‘Revolutionary Age’ with the publisher Joseph Johnson.
Birth of an Ottoman Traveller
Evliya Çelebi was born on 25 March 1611.
Libraries for All
Early modern parish libraries, frequently established for the benefit of the general public, were often deliberately inaccessible.
The Strange Death of Liberal Egypt
For most Egyptians the country’s independence came with the revolution of July 1952, not with the end of the British protectorate in February 1922. Yet, as the experiences of three patriotic writers show, independence did not mean freedom.
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
Sherlock Holmes is the 19th century’s most famous cocaine user, but why did he take it?
The Rise of the Newts
A speculative novel about an amphibious threat held dire warnings for interwar Europe.
Has Literature Ever Changed the Course of History?
On the 100th anniversary of its publication, James Joyce’s Ulysses is widely regarded as a groundbreaking work of fiction, but can literature have any impact outside the confines of culture?
A Peach of a Project
The author of the quaint, but much-loved Ladybird books was also a radical playwright.
The Doctor Is In
Mills & Boon’s medical romances helped make the NHS more appealing to an ambivalent public.