BRING YOUR DNB INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

This new book, drawn from the award-winning Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, brings together the life stories of more than 800 men and women who have shaped all aspects of the British past and who died between 2001 and 2004.

These are the people responsible for some of the major developments in the United Kingdom during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Alongside those who left their mark in politics, the arts, business, law, military service, sport, and education are leading figures in new branches of science and medicine such as genetics, transplantation, and computing-and in new forms of entertainment and communication.

Authoritative and accessible, the biographies in this volume are written by specialist authors, many of them leading figures in their field. Here are just a few of the more than 800 biographies that you will find:

-Douglas Adams, writer

- Alistair Cooke, broadcaster

- Francis Crick, biologist and discoverer of DNA

- Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother

- Thom Gunn, poet

- George Harrison, musician

- Princess Margaret

- Dudley Moore, actor

- Herchel Smith, chemist

- Sir Denis Thatcher, prime ministerial consort

Alongside these figures are less-familiar names responsible for some well-known features of modern British life-including Godfrey Hounsfield, inventor of the CAT scanner and Barry Bucknell, pioneer of television DIY.

And because this is the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, many of the lives also offer a range of wonderfully entertaining insights. Inside you'll also meet the lawyer Peter Carter-Ruck, whose Rolls Royce sported the license plate L1BEL; Daniel Coxeter, the mathematician who ascribed his longevity to daily headstands; and Ian Russell, the entrepreneurial duke of Bedford, who wrote in the visitors' book of a rival: "You should come to Woburn. It is better."

About the Author:
Dr Lawrence Goldman, tutorial fellow in modern history at St Peter's College, Oxford, became editor of the Oxford DNB on 1 October 2004. He combines his editorship with continuing teaching and research in his college and university roles. Born in London, Lawrence read history at Jesus College, Cambridge, and then went to Yale University. His first teaching position was in Oxford's department for continuing education.

Dr Goldman is primarily a historian of modern Britain, but he has also published on American and transatlantic history. In addition to articles and essays in journals and collections, he is the author of Dons and Workers: Oxford and Adult Education since 1850 (OUP, 1995) and Science, Reform, and Politics in Victorian Britain: the Social Science Association, 1857-1886 (CUP, 2002). He is also co-editor of a volume of essays in memory of Colin Matthew, first editor of the Oxford DNB, entitled The Political Culture of Victorian Britain. He is married and has three children.