The British Library - The British Library

What’s on

The Queens Elizabeth and Mary featured side by side

Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens

Fri 8 Oct 2021 - Sun 20 Feb 2022

Paddington Bear

Paddington: The Story of a Bear

Fri 9 Jul - Sun 31 Oct 2021

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

Treasures of the British Library

Free

David Wengrow and Emma Dabiri

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

Tue 19 Oct 2021

Mary Queen of Scots

Mary Queen of Scots: The Power and the Glory

Thu 21 Oct 2021

Andrew Salkey, monochrome

Keep On Keeping On: Celebrating Andrew Salkey

Fri 22 Oct 2021

Africa Writes 2021

Mona Eltahawy

Africa Writes Festival - Dismantling the Patriarchy: Mona Eltahawy in conversation

Sun 24 Oct 2021

Woman holding bowl in burnt forest

Africa Writes Festival - Inherited: All Our Names

Sat 23 Oct 2021

View all

News

tens of brightly lit origami boats floating on water at night

Coming to Leeds this autumn

We’ve got plenty in store for West Yorkshire this season

Integration

Blog notifications update

The third-party platform that the British Library uses to generate email notifications for our blogs is making changes to…

Outside the King's Tower

Welcoming you back safely

We're back

Blogs

English and Drama blog from the British Library

A Bear called Paddington: published 13 October 1958

Medieval manuscripts blog from the British Library

Elizabeth and Mary, Royal Cousins, Rival Queens: Curators’ Picks

European blog from the British Library

Investigating German colonialism in the British Library’s collections

Learn

A graphic of people with placards expressing feminist demands.

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

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

Students working in the Library

Current vacancies and other opportunities – and how to apply