The original eating and drinking guide to London is published today for the first time since 1815

‘There are a pleasant room and good accommodations up stairs: the servants are attentive, and the charges are moderate. What, in the name of conscience, reader, would you have more?’

- Ralph Rylance, 1815

Appointment of a new Part-time Board Member

Ed Vaizey, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, has appointed Patrick Plant to the Board of the British Library, for terms of four years, starting on 15 May 2012.

The British Library marks the centenary of Brazil’s most famous writer Jorge Amado

This year sees the 100th anniversary of the birth of acclaimed Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado. The British Library will be celebrating with a day of literary and cultural reflections about his life and work on Friday 8 June, with guest scholars, writers and artists from around the world in attendance.

Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands 11 May – 25 September 2012

• The British Library explores literature inspired by spaces and places around the British Isles, from Penny Lane to Platform 9 ¾

As the world’s attention turns to the UK this summer, Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands explores treasures from the last 1000 years of English literature that have been shaped by the country’s unique spaces and places. From idyllic rural landscapes to gritty cities, the exhibition will showcase a literary map of the British Isles and highlight how writers, from William Shakespeare and Walter Scott to John Lennon and J K Rowling, have recorded the changing spaces of the British Isles in some of their greatest literary works, and in turn inspired their readers to explore the country in new ways. http://www.bl.uk/writingbritain