The Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest surviving botanic garden in Britain, occupying the same location in central Oxford since 1621. Designed as a nursery for growing medicinal plants amid the turmo
This book explores the lives and posthumous reputations of Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary Shelley, and Mary's parents, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. It tells the story of how Mary Shell
No work has challenged its readers like Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell”—by turns iconoclastic, bizarre, and unprecedented—have been employed as the slogans of stude
Someone has fallen into the rain puddle! But who is it? Well, on that point everyone seems to disagree. Is it the plump hen? The turkey? The curly sheep? The lovely, fat pig? Everyone sees something d
The University of Oxford is the third-oldest university in Europe and remains one of the greatest universities in the world. Institutions have waxed and waned over the centuries, but Oxford has always
Most of us are aware that the words for some of our most important concepts stem from ancient Greek roots—words such as geometry, democracy, technology, and aesthetics. But lesser known is the w
The much-loved tales from The Thousand and One Nights first appeared in English translation in the early nineteenth century, based on French translations of versions of the stories found in Syrian and
From diesel to gerrymandering, the English language is rich with eponyms—words that are named after an individual. The many histories behind these words are often mesmerizing—a word named,
How is ink made? What is the bestselling book of all time? What are the oldest known books in the world? And how does one make sense of the colors found on Penguin paperbacks? The answers to these que
The sun is round and hot and glowing. An orange is round on the tree where it’s growing. Many things in the natural world are round—the sun, the moon, a bird’s nest with three
Children will discover a world of colors as they set out on an adventure with a cheerful boy named Jonny. From the moment he wakes bright-eyed to the yellow sunlight streaming through his bedroom wind
Bears spend the winter months slumbering deep in dark caves. But they’re not the only wild animals with strange sleep habits. Horses do it standing up in stalls or fields, their tails switching at tro
Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” is one of the most important documents in legal history. Originating in 1215 as a peace treaty between King John and a group of rebellious barons at Runnymede, it put
Epitaphs are words to be eternally remembered by, short poems or phrases literally written in stone. They can be practical, carrying some variation of the familiar “Here Lies,” but they can also be br
Fonts are everywhere. You may even have a favorite serif or sans serif. But have you ever wondered who took the bold steps to create it? Behind every great font is a great story, and, in this fascinat
