Publication: 22 October 2026

This beautifully illustrated book explores the stories behind the literary manuscripts of the world’s best-known authors.

This beautifully illustrated book explores the stories behind over fifty literary manuscripts held at the Bodleian Library. Covering a time span of nearly three millennia, the book features the work of some of the world’s best-known authors, including novelists, poets, dramatists and children’s writers.

Centuries-old items include papyrus fragments of work by Homer and Sappho, Cædmon’s Hymn as featured in an 11th-century manuscript, and 15th-century illuminated manuscripts of works by Christine de Pizan and Geoffrey Chaucer. Manuscript pages in the author’s own
hand give a rare insight into the drafting process from the sixteenth century onwards. Novelists’ drafts range from ‘The Watsons’ by Jane Austen, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Mrs Lirriper’s Lodgings by Charles Dickens, to John le Carré’s biro annotations on typescript for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Philip Pullman’s neat drafts for Lyra’s Oxford on narrow-lined A4. Poems by Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy, Wilfred Owen and Jenny Joseph are included alongside well-loved children’s stories such as The Wind in the Willows, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Paddington Goes to Town.

Also featuring portraits and photographs held in the archives, this book delves into authors’ lives, the fascinating stories behind the creation and composition of their works, and the afterlives of their manuscripts.

RACHAEL MARSAY is Roy Davids Archivist at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.

• Hardback
• ISBN: 9781851246731
• Extent: 264 pages
• Size: 250 x 210 mm
• Illustrations: 115 Colour illustrations