Language & Literature

Explore literary treasures, everyday ephemera, and the complex history of the English language, with unique texts from the British Library.

In this section...

Playtimes: A Century of Children's Games and Rhymes

Unique audio recordings and film footage of children's games from 1900 to the present day.
Enter Playtimes: A Century of Children's Games and Rhymes

Travel through the country in this website, and discover the UK’s rich landscape of diverse accents and dialects.
Enter Sounds Familiar?

Listen to well-known actors performing poetry by some of Britain and America’s most distinguished poets.
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See how the English language has been altered, expanded, subverted and experimented with for hundreds of years.
Enter Changing Language

Explore the evolution of English language and literature, from the 11th century to the present day.

View rich original source material to explore the social and historical context into which Dickens’s novels were born.
Enter Dickens in Context

Rifle through six hundred years of recipes and remedies, from medieval potions and pies to 1920s cocktails.
Enter Books for Cooks

From recipes and adverts to logbooks and songs, explore the many ways in which language is used and produced.
Enter Texts in Context

Trace the history of dictionaries, from scoundrels’ slang books to Caribbean lexicons.
Enter Dictionaries and Meanings

From Shakespeare to Alice, take a tour of some of the British Library’s finest literary treasures.
Enter English Literature

Find out more about our invigorating programme of CPD events this Autumn.