Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Wise, world-weary and occasionally cynical, proverbs mirror the human experience and remain remarkably insightful today, discovers Matthew Dennison

Mathematical patterns in Byron, Austen, Dickens and Trollope

SPIRITS MAFALDA QUINO Translated by Frank Wynne ...

HEADWORDS SHAKESPEARE’S CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY A dictionary JANICE ...

With returning swifts screaming across the rooftop and golden buttercup pollen gilding his Wellingtons as he strides across the cow meadow, John Lewis-Stempel marvels at the many pleasures of May

Take a good dollop of Victorian innovation, add a fistful of classics, season it liberally with creative genius and you’ll cook up the very British art of literary illustration. Carla Passino charts its history and discovers that it still thrives