Some literary reference books include literary chronologies – The Oxford Companion to English Literature (edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press) available in bookshops or libraries. Some British Council offices will have a copy:
There are a number of dictionaries of dates, e.g. Dent’s Dictionary of Dates, available in bookshops or libraries.
The British and Irish authors website lists authors by date of birth and includes their death dates as well.
Look on the book selling web sites for books available in print:
British bookshops and libraries have access to the CD-ROMs Whitaker’s Books in Print or Bookwise both of which list all books currently in print, recently out of print or soon to be published. These CD-ROMs can also be searched for books about authors that will include bibliographies or critical works with bibliographies
Author biographies usually include bibliographies – see the next two questions for information on biographies
The British Library catalogue lists books published by British authors and includes books now out of print . This website also includes catalogues from other major libraries in the UK
For children’s authors contact the National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature
The second-hand book website Abebooks or the CD-ROM Whitaker’s Books Out of Print lists out-of-print books. UKBookworld.com, W. H. Smith, and Blackwells, all provide an out-of-print book search.
Contemporary authors – the British Council/Booktrust Contemporary Writer’s Database includes author bibliographies: http://www.contemporarywriters.com
Children’s Book Directory includes links to sites on authors, and illustrators
Northamptonshire County Council Learning Resources for Education has an A-Z of links to children’s author sites
Whichbook.net (not a bibliographic site but a book selection site) combines a selection of features you would like a book to contain and it will produce a list of books with a brief description of each.
EnCompassculture – the British Council book selection site based on our bibliographies and genre lists.
British bookshops and libraries have access to the CD-ROMs Whitaker’s Books in Print or Bookwise both of which list all books currently in print, recently out of print or soon to be published. These CD-ROMs can be searched for books about authors.
Literary reference books include a list of major biographies under each author entry – The Oxford Companion to English Literature (edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press); The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (edited by Ian Ousby, Cambridge University Press) available in British bookshops or libraries.
The British Council/Northcote House series Writers and Their Work includes biographies of many major British authors:
Internet bookshops list books with the author’s name in the title:
Contemporary authors – the British Council/Booktrust Contemporary Writer’s Database includes author biographies http://www.contemporarywriters.com
Contact the author’s publisher – publisher’s contact details are available from:
Wordpool includes children’s author profiles.
The Children’s Books Directory includes links to sites on authors, and illustrators as well as links to children’s literature publishers.
Northamptonshire County Council Learning Resources for Education has an A-Z of links to children’s author sites.
Literary criticism collection with biographies of authors can be found at the Internet Public Library Literary Criticism page.
The Guardian's Author pages has information about lots of contemporary authors.
To buy a British book contact a British exporting bookseller:
...or an internet bookseller:
To borrow a British book contact your local British Council office some of which have lending and/or reference libraries. The office can also advise you on borrowing a book from the British Library Lending Division (this service is not available to countries with which Britain does not have diplomatic relations). Books can be borrowed directly from the British Library through their site: http://blpc.bl.uk
To buy an out-of-print British book contact
We do not supply books apart from our own publications (information directories, bibliographies and an annual anthology) - details of how to order these are available on our website:
To buy a British book contact a British exporting bookseller:
...or an internet bookseller:
To borrow a British book contact your local British Council office some of which have lending and/or reference libraries. The office can also advise you on borrowing a book from the British Library Lending Division (this service is not available to countries with which Britain does not have diplomatic relations). Books can be borrowed directly from the British Library through their site: http://blpc.bl.uk
To buy an out-of-print British book contact
Contact the:
Arts Council of England Literature Officers
14 Great Peter Street
London SW1P 3NQ
E-mail: enquiries@artscouncil.org
Website: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk
Scottish Book Trust
The Scottish Book Centre
137 Dundee Street
Edinburgh EH11 1BG
Telephone: +44 (0)131 229 3663
Fax: +44 (0)131 228 4293
E-mail: info@scottishbooktrust.com
Website: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com
The Scottish Publishers’ Association includes information about Scottish events
Academi (Welsh Academy)
3rd Floor
Mount Stuart House
Mount Stuart Square
Cardiff CF1 6DQ
Telephone: +44 (0)29 2047 2266
Fax: +44 (0)29 2049 2930
E-mail: post@academi.org
Website: http://www.academi.org
The Arts Councils of Ireland’s arts and entertainment listings site which includes literature events, talks and festivals: http://www.art.ie
Poetry Library
Level 5
The Royal Festival Hall
London SE1 8XX
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7921 0943
Fax: +44 (0)20 7921 0939
E-mail: poetrylibrary@rfh.org.uk
Website: http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk
Other sources of information:
Contact the local public library in the region that you are visiting
Consult a good listings magazine which lists readings for the next week (for example, Time Out London). There is also a specialist poetry magazine called Poetry London which lists lots of events - you should be able to have a look at a copy at the Poetry Library in London.
It isn’t possible for us to list all the UK contemporary authors with their books as there are so many.
Our Contemporary Writers website provides information about UK authors:
We publish a newsletter twice a year, Literature Matters, which includes a round up of UK fiction annually which you may find useful - it is also on our web site
We also publish a book annually called New Writing that includes new authors as well as more established authors.
Every year we produce bibliographies about an aspect of UK literature. The most recent are:
Our Contemporary writers website includes critical reviews of authors:
Booktrust has contemporary literature reviews
For reviews of contemporary children’s literature visit:
The BBC books site includes reviews and interviews.
A number of UK newspapers have special books pages with reviews:
Book selling sites include book reviews:
Whichbook.net (not a reviewing site but a book selection site) – lets you combine a selection of features you would like a book to contain and it will produce a list of books with a brief description of each
EnCompassculture – the British Council book selection site based on our bibliographies and genre lists includes reader’s reviews.
Literary periodicals include reviews. We have a list on our site
Author interviews can be found on a number of sites, for example:
Publishers’ sites often contain author interviews, such as, Virago and Penguin's Readers Group. A list of publisher's can be found using the following links:
I would like a list of arts festivals in the UK?
I would like the contact details for …literary festival.
Which authors will be attending the … literary festival?
Do you have a list of all the poetry festivals in the UK?
We have a list of Literature Festivals and arts festivals with a literary content:
For general arts festivals, contact the British Arts Festivals
We do not have a list of literary festivals around the world only those in the UK. There are a number of websites that you can find some information about festivals in Europe:
Festivals that we deal with overseas include:
If you know which country you are interested in you can contact our office in that country:
A comprehensive guide to British literary prizes is available on the Booktrust site and in print (Book Trust Guide to Literary Prizes, 1999, £5.99, ISBN 0 85353 477 2).
Booktrust
45 East Hill
London SW18 2QZ
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8516 2977
Fax: +44 (0)20 8516 2978
Web site: http://www.booktrust.org.uk
Book Information is Booktrust’s database site.
For links about literary prizes go to our Prizes page.
I want to publish a book by a British author in my country.
I want to translate a book (or part of one) for use in my country.
Contact the Rights Department of the author’s publisher or contact their agent with an explanation of exactly which book, how much of the book you want to use and why you want to use it. If you have a copy of the book the publisher’s address is usually given on the reverse of the title page
For publishers’ contact details:
If it is a short story or an article published in a magazine then contact the publisher of the magazine to ask permission to use it. The magazine will include the publisher’s address; contact details for all literary magazines are listed in the Writers' and Artists’ Yearbook (A & C Black, annual publication); A list of literary periodicals with contact details is available on our website:
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