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What’s on

Face of Alexander the Great statue opened to reveal a pink elephant, a snake, a horse and a ship.

Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth

Fri 21 Oct 2022 - Sun 19 Feb 2023

Treasures of the British Library. Discover stories that shape the world.

Treasures of the British Library

Free

Composite of the speakers in the Polari event

Polari Prize shortlist showcase

Mon 10 Oct 2022

Sold out

Author Malorie Blackman (photo credit Dominic Turner)

The PEN Pinter Prize 2022: Malorie Blackman

Mon 10 Oct 2022

Richard Ovenden, Dr. Lara Lempert, Laimonas Briedis, Jean-Marc Dreyfus

Hidden Libraries as Landscapes of Resistance and Survival

Tue 11 Oct 2022

Paterson Joseph

The Extraordinary Life of Charles Ignatius Sancho, with Paterson Joseph

Fri 14 Oct 2022

Susie Dent and Tom Read Wilson

Words! with Susie Dent and Tom Read Wilson

Sat 15 Oct 2022

T. S. Eliot

The Waste Land: Biography of a Poem

Mon 17 Oct 2022

Audience members at a previous event

Somali Week Festival Launch 2022

Fri 21 Oct 2022

The Adventures of a Black Edwardian Intellectual

Fri 21 Oct 2022

All events and exhibitions

News

Web maintenance at the British Library

Travel disruption and delivery updates

There may be some disruption to our services over the next few weeks.

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Get your free British Library Reader Pass

Its all yours. Get your free Reader Pass for study space and over 170 million items.

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LEEDS 2023

We’re counting down the days until LEEDS 2023, a year-long festival celebrating the city's culture and creativity.

Blogs

English and Drama blog from the British Library

The Beatles and Hunter Davies

Asian and African blog at the British Library, collection item detail

Five Centuries of Copying, Illustrating and Reading Amir Khusraw’s Poetry

Untold Lives blog from the British Library

A 'pest of skolds' and other 'unruly women' (part II)

Learn

Preview of the Black literature timeline poster, showing text entries by date, portraits and a tablet featuring images of book covers and handwritten manuscripts

Collage of photograph of Andrea Levy's parents and one of her manuscripts

‘How come England did not know me?’: Recording Andrea Levy for Authors’ Lives

More Learning resources

Discover

A Description of Three Hundred Animals [page: frontispiece and title page]

The Devonshire Manuscript

Explore this hand-written volume, known as the Devonshire Manuscript

Explore our Highlights

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Find out how to get a Reader Pass

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Support the British Library

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Business support at the British Library

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Work with us

Students working in the Library

Current vacancies and other opportunities – and how to apply