Illustration of a Medieval Scribe

Literature

A portrait of Jane Austen. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Where history happened: Jane Austen. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Robert Louis Stevenson, the 19th-century English poet and novelist perhaps best known for his books 'Treasure Island' and the 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

My history hero: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A photograph of J Meade Falkner, c1915. He "had an extraordinary mind, the type you don't come across often," says Chris de Burgh of the novelist. (Public Domain)

My history hero: J Meade Falkner (1858-1932). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Laurence Olivier plays Richard III in the 1955 film adaptation of Shakespeare's play. In it, the controversial monarch is damned as everything from a "bottled spider" and "lump of foul deformity" to a "poisonous bunch-backed toad". (Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Why did Shakespeare revile Richard III?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Richard II, led captive by Henry Bolingbroke (later Henry IV), renounces the throne in Jean Creton's 'Histoire du Roy d'Angleterre Richard II' (1401-05). (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Richard II: “I find myself a traitor”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sue Townsend admires Charles Dickens (pictured c1960) for his battles against social injustice. (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images)

My history hero: Charles Dickens (1812-1870). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Dickens on the move. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Line engraving depicting the burning of Rawlins White, c1555. From a late 18th-century edition of John Foxe's 'The Book of Martyrs'. (Alamy)

The Making of Martyrs. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer from an early 15th-century manuscript of the poem ‘De Regimine Principum’ by Thomas Hoccleve. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The LibraryChaucer and the idea of Englishness. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Charles Dickens: his life and works. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The LibraryA new history of England and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

My history hero: Samuel Johnson (1709-84). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The making of the King James Bible. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

My history hero: Abba Kovner (1918–87). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Robert Burns: the people’s poet. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

John Leland: The man who saved medieval knowledge. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The plague, Sir Walter Ralegh and Jerusalem. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) who wrote under the pseudonym of Mark Twain, standing outside on a porch. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Mark Twain: America’s historical conscience?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The motivations behind Viking raids and the life of Dr Johnson. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Robert Burns and Francis Bacon. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.