Britain possesses a literary heritage which is almost unrivalled in the Western world. In this illustrated volume the richness, diversity and continuity of that tradition from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day are explored by a group of Britain's foremost literary scholars. At the heart of the history is Shakespeare, but other major figures including Chaucer, Milton, Donne, Dickens and Eliot, as well as living authors such as Seamus Heaney and Edward Bond, are discussed in depth in this book.