The British Library - The British Library

What’s on

Five star review by Evening Standard – 'By Some Distance, The Most Significant Exhibition In London'

Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War

Fri 19 Oct 2018 - Tue 19 Feb 2019

Books

Pop up Book Making Masterclass

Sat 15 Dec 2018

Limited places

Mirrors of our age

Mirrors of Their Age: The Codex Amiatinus and the Lindisfarne Gospels

Mon 7 Jan 2019

Cats on the Page

Cats on the Page

Free

Fri 23 Nov 2018 - Sun 17 Mar 2019

Kitten asleep on bookshelf

Cats in Literature

Thu 10 Jan 2019

Limited places

David Olusoga

1919: Britain's Forgotten Race Riots

Fri 11 Jan 2019

The Song of the Jellicles © Nicolas Bentley, Faber and Faber

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats: A Celebration

Tue 15 Jan 2019

View all

News

Writing examples

Exhibitions at the Library in 2019

Writing, Leonardo da Vinci, Buddhism, Harold Pinter, photography and cityscapes

Annunciation to the Shepherds, twelfth century psalter – BL, MS Cotton Caligula A. vii/l, f.6v.

800 medieval manuscripts now available online

A groundbreaking collaboration with the Bibliothèque nationale de France

Materials, studio of Trevor Bell. Photograph © Steve Tanner

Explore behind the scenes of the art world

Listen to artists speak about their work

Blogs

Maps and views blog

Accuracy? Do me a favour!

Digital scholarship blog at the British Library

Introducing an experimental format for learning about content mining for digital scholarship

Business blog from the British Library

Contemporary twists on traditional festive gifts

Discover

Great Canon of the Yongle Reign

A painting in the Sforza Hours showing Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Giovan Pietro Birago. Milan, c. 1490

Explore the beautifully decorated Sforza Hours

Explore our Highlights

Learn

Queen Victoria's Christmas tree painting cropped

Floella Benjamin's family

Floella Benjamin on coming to England

More Learning resources

Get started

Get started at the British Library, photo of a Reading Room

Find out how to get a Reader Pass

Support us

Support the British Library

Help grow, protect and share our collection

Business support

Business support at the British Library

We can help you start, run and grow your business

Work with us

Careers at the British Library

Current vacancies and other opportunities – and how to apply

Shop

New in

Polaroid SX70 Camera

£389.00

christmas card crime

The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories

£8.99

car with tree dec

Car Decoration

£5.00

Best seller

Christmas Jumper

Literary Christmas Jumper

£45.00