Some literary reference books include literary chronologies – The Oxford Companion to English Literature (edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press) available in bookshops or libraries. Some British Council offices will have a copy.

• British Council Offices Worldwide

There are a number of dictionaries of dates, e. g., Dent’s Dictionary of Dates, available in bookshops or libraries

The British and Irish authors website lists authors by date of birth and includes their death dates as well.

Look on the book selling websites for books available in print:

• Amazon UK
• Blackwells
• Bol
• Bookplace
• Coutts Library Services UK
• W. H. Smith

British bookshops and libraries have access to the CD-ROMs Whitaker’s Books in Print or Bookwise both of which list all books currently in print, recently out of print or soon to be published. These CD-ROMs can also be searched for books about authors that will include bibliographies or critical works with bibliographies.

Author biographies usually include bibliographies – see the next two questions for information on biographies.

The British Library catalogue lists books published by British authors and includes books now out of print . This website also includes catalogues from other major libraries in the UK.

For children’s authors contact the National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature.

The second-hand book website Abebooks or the CD-ROM Whitaker’s Books Out of Print lists out-of-print books. UKBookworld.com, W. H. Smith, and Blackwells, all provide an out-of-print book search.

Contemporary authors – the British Council/Booktrust Contemporary Writer’s Database includes author bibliographies: http://www.contemporarywriters.com.

Children’s Book Directory includes links to sites on authors, and illustrators

Northamptonshire County Council Learning Resources for Education has an A-Z of links to children’s author sites

Whichbook.net (not a bibliographic site but a book selection site)– combine a selection of features you would like a book to contain and it will produce a list of books with a brief description of each.

EnCompassculture – the British Council book selection site based on our bibliographies and genre lists.

British bookshops and libraries have access to the CD-ROMs Whitaker’s Books in Print or Bookwise both of which list all books currently in print, recently out of print or soon to be published. These CD-ROMs can be searched for books about authors

Literary reference books include a list of major biographies under each author entry – The Oxford Companion to English Literature (edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press); The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (edited by Ian Ousby, Cambridge University Press) available in British bookshops or libraries

The British Council/Northcote House series Writers and Their Work includes biographies of many major British authors:

Internet bookshops will lists books with the author’s name in the title:

• Amazon UK
• Blackwells
• Bol
• Bookplace
• Coutts Library Services UK
• W. H. Smith

Contemporary authors – the British Council/Booktrust Contemporary Writer’s Database includes author biographies http://www.contemporarywriters.com

Contact the author’s publisher – publisher’s contact details are available from:

• Booktrust - list of UK publishers
• Booktrade
• Babash - their directory of UK publishers can be searched by genre or by name
• The Publisher’s Association
  1 Kingsway
  London WC2B 6XF
  Telephone: +44 (0)20 7565 7474
  Fax: +44 (0)20 7836 4543
  E-mail: mail@publishers.org.uk
  Website: http://www.publishers.org.uk

Wordpool includes children’s author profiles.

The Children’s Books Directory includes links to sites on authors, and illustrators as well as links to children’s literature publishers.

Northamptonshire County Council Learning Resources for Education has an A-Z of links to children’s author sites.

Literary criticism collection with biographies of authors can be found at the Internet Public Library Literary Criticism page.

The Guardian's Author pages has information about lots of contemporary authors.

To buy a British book contact an internet bookseller:

• Amazon UK
• Blackwells
• Bol
• Bookplace
• Coutts Library Services UK
• W. H. Smith

To borrow a British book contact your local British Council office some of which have lending and/or reference libraries. The office can also advise you on borrowing a book from the British Library Lending Division (this service is not available to countries with which Britain does not have diplomatic relations). Books can be borrowed directly from the British Library through their site: http://blpc.bl.uk

To buy an out-of-print British book contact

• Abebooks which lists out-of-print books.
• UKBookworld.com, W. H. Smith, or Blackwells, who all provide an out-of-print book search.

If it is a Film and Literature Department publication details are available on our website

• British Council Literature homepage

For other British Council publications please see our publications catalogue:

• http://www.britishcouncil.org/publications

We do not supply books apart from our own publications (information directories, bibliographies and an annual anthology) - details of how to order these are available on our website:

• British Council Publications and Resources for Literature

To buy a British book contact a British exporting bookseller:

• http://www.britishcouncil.org/infoexch/publishing/sellers.htm

...or an internet bookseller:

• Amazon UK
• Blackwells
• Bol
• Bookplace
• Coutts Library Services UK
• W. H. Smith

To borrow a British book contact your local British Council office some of which have lending and/or reference libraries. The office can also advise you on borrowing a book from the British Library Lending Division (this service is not available to countries with which Britain does not have diplomatic relations). Books can be borrowed directly from the British Library through their site: http://blpc.bl.uk

To buy an out-of-print British book contact

• Abebooks which lists out-of-print books.
• UKBookworld.com, W. H. Smith, or Blackwells, who all provide an out-of-print book search.

Contact the:

Arts Council of England Literature Officers
14 Great Peter Street
London SW1P 3NQ
E-mail: enquiries@artscouncil.org
Website: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk

Scottish Book Trust
The Scottish Book Centre
137 Dundee Street
Edinburgh EH11 1BG
Telephone: +44 (0)131 229 3663
Fax: +44 (0)131 228 4293
E-mail: info@scottishbooktrust.com
Website: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com

The Scottish Publishers’ Association includes information about Scottish events

Academi (Welsh Academy)
3rd Floor
Mount Stuart House
Mount Stuart Square
Cardiff CF1 6DQ
Telephone: +44 (0)29 2047 2266
Fax: +44 (0)29 2049 2930
E-mail: post@academi.org
Website: http://www.academi.org

The Arts Councils of Ireland’s arts and entertainment listings site which includes literature events, talks and festivals: http://www.art.ie

Poetry Library
Level 5
The Royal Festival Hall
London SE1 8XX
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7921 0943
Fax: +44 (0)20 7921 0939
E-mail: poetrylibrary@rfh.org.uk
Website: http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk

Other sources of information:

• British Council list of literary festivals
• The South Bank Centre in London has regular events
• Apples and Snakes is a London-based performance poetry organisation with a programme of events
• Poetry Kit lists poetry events in the UK
• Bookshops in the region that you are visiting which often have author readings as well as signings, eg. Waterstones or Borders
• Booktrust include listings of London events

Contact the local public library in the region that you are visiting

Consult a good listings magazine which lists readings for the next week, for example, Time Out London. There is also a specialist poetry magazine called Poetry London which lists lots of events - you should be able to have a look at a copy at the Poetry Library in London.

It isn’t possible for us to list all the UK contemporary authors with their books as there are so many.

Our Contemporary Writers website provides information about UK authors:

• http://www.contemporarywriters.com

We publish a newsletter twice a year, Literature Matters, which includes a round up of UK fiction annually which would be useful to you  - it is also on our web site

• Literature Matters (online)

We also publish a book annually called New Writing that includes new authors as well as more established authors.

Every year we produce bibliographies about an aspect of UK literature. The most recent are:

• Reading the City: a bibliography of books, short films and online resources
• Crime: a select bibliography of contemporary crime and legal literature from the UK
• What a good sport!: a select bibliography of contemporary sporting literature from then UK

Our Contemporary writers website includes critical reviews of authors:

• http://www.contemporarywriters.com

Booktrust has contemporary literature reviews

For reviews of contemporary children’s literature visit:

• Young Booktrust
• ACHUKA Children’s Books UK which also includes interviews
• Wordpool
• Children’s Book directory

The BBC books site includes reviews and interviews.

A number of UK newspapers have special books pages with reviews:

• The Guardian includes author profiles
• The Independent
• The Telegraph (click the Books section in the left-hand menu)

Book selling sites include book reviews:

• Amazon UK
• Blackwells
• Bol
• Bookplace
• Coutts Library Services UK
• W. H. Smith

Whichbook.net (not a reviewing site but a book selection site) – combine a selection of features you would like a book to contain and it will produce a list of books with a brief description of each

www.encompassculture.com – this British Council website is an online reading group, book selection site, weblog area, and offers reading groups discussion boards.

Literary periodicals include reviews. We have a list on our site:

• Literary Periodicals

Author interviews can be found on a number of sites, for example:

• ACHUKA Children’s Books UK
• BBC books site
• BBC Radio 4 site
• Between the Lines radio programme on the One Word site
• Booktrusted has children’s author interviews
• Relax with a Book has lots of video author interviews
• Wordpool
• The Independent Books Section

Publishers’ sites often contain author interviews, such as, Virago and Penguin's Readers Group. A list of publisher's can be found using the following links:

• Booktrust - list of UK publishers
• The Publisher's Association
• Booktrade Information
• UK and Ireland Publisher's Genre Index

We have a list of Literature Festivals and arts festivals with a literary content:

• UK Literature Festivals

For general arts festivals contact the British Arts Festivals.

We do not have a list of literary festivals around the world, only those in the UK. There are a number of websites that you can find some information about festivals in Europe:

• The European Festivals Association
• Festivals in Finland
• Norway Festivals

Festivals that we deal with overseas include:

• Sydney Writers Festival, Australia - May
• Melbourne Writer’s Festival, Australia – August
• Children’s Literature Festival, Belgium - February
• Montreal Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival, Canada - April
• Victoria Literary Arts Festival, Canada - May
• Ottawa International Writers Festival, Canada - September
• Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival (WordFest), Canada - October
• Festivale Internationale de la Poesie de Trois-Rivieres, Canada – September/October
• Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, Canada - October
• Medellin International Poetry Festival, Colombia - June
• Helsinki Festival, Finland - August
• Festival Franco-Anglais de Poesie, France – May
• Concrete Poetry Festival, Cologne, Germany - Autumn
• British Literature Festival, Germany – May
• International Storytelling Festival, Aachen, Germany - November
• International Children’s Literature Festival, Israel - June
• Lithuania Spring Festival, Lithuania - May
• Auckland Writers and Readers Festival, New Zealand - May
• Port Legnica Poetry Festival, Poland – September
• Poetry Lisbon Festival, Portugal – May
• Time of the Writer Festival, South Africa – March
• Stockholm International Poetry Festival, Sweden - November
• International Literature Festival, Leukerbad, Switzerland – June/July

If you know which country you are interested in you can contact our office in that country:

• British Council Offices Worldwide

A comprehensive guide to British literary prizes is available on the Booktrust site and in print (Book Trust Guide to Literary Prizes, 1999, £5.99, ISBN 0 85353 477 2).

Booktrust
45 East Hill
London SW18 2QZ
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8516 2977
Fax: +44 (0)20 8516 2978
Website: http://www.booktrust.org.uk

Book Information is Booktrust’s database site.

Other links about literary prizes:

• Amazon prizes list
  Includes Arthur C Clarke Award, Betty Trask Awards, Booker Prize, British Book Awards, Guardian Fiction Prize, Orange Prize, Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, Whitbread Book Awards, Carnegie, Hans Christian Andersen Medal, Kate Greenaway Award for Illustrators, Kurt Maschler Award, Nestle Smarties Prize and Whitbread Children's Book of the Year.
• Booktrade - Book trade site includes prizes information.
• Canterbury Public Library - Literary prizes list - Useful information on the Betty Trask Awards, Crime Writers' Association Awards, Guardian Awards, Hugo Awards for Science Fiction, Nebulla Awards for Science Fiction, Whitbread Prizes, Kate Greenaway Award and the Carnegie
• Literature Awards lists international literary awards with a calendar

A selection of prize sites can be found on our Prizes page.

Contact our General Enquiries point for information about non-fiction books:

• General enquiries telephone: +44 (0)20 7389 3170
• E-mail: literatureuk@britishcouncil.org

For advice on English language teaching books contact our English Department.