Topic description and stories

Dickens letter

Ever your affectionate Father, Charles Dickens

07 Feb 2012

A letter written in 1868 by Charles Dickens, the bicentenary of whose birth falls today, to his son Henry, who had newly arrived at Cambridge...

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Poet Clare Holtham and Uzbek chieftain in Afghanistan, early 1970s

For lust of knowing what should not be known

12 Nov 2011

Clare Holtham (1948-2010) had a huge enthusiasm for learning. After a troubled childhood, which led to a spell of homelessness, she became an...

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Cooking the books

The edible nature of words

12 Sep 2011

A workshop at Cambridge University tomorrow will celebrate the rich and varied relationship between words and food, both metaphorically and literally...

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Book of Old Times

The uncensored Jane Austen

30 May 2010

The early works of Jane Austen may not be as well remembered as her six novels, but as Janet Todd explained, they reveal a sense of the absurd which...

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