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While the reputations of authors and poets can wax and wane both during their lives and the years that follow, few have polarised opinion as much as Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). His name is inextricably associated with the other Romantic poets, Byron and Keats, but his atheism (and his appalling treatment of his wife) invoked genuine hatred while he lived, and the quality of the poetry of the Romantics in general, and his in particular, has, at times, been much derided. However, the list of his admirers is far longer then the list of his critics.

More than any other contemporary writer, Alfred Tennyson (1809 -1892) embodied the Victorian age, and during his lifetime, he, Queen Victoria and William Gladstone were said to be the three most famous people alive. Much loved by Victoria and Albert, he became poet laureate in 1850, and remained so until his death, the longest serving before and since. He was also unique in being the first peer to be created for his writing. By general consensus, then and now, he was the finest of the Victorian poets.

When William Wordsworth (1770-1850) published ‘Lyrical Ballads’ with Samuel Coleridge in 1798, they launched the Romantic Age of English Literature. Although now generally considered the greatest poet of his age, at the time he would have been considered secondary to Keats, Scott and later Tennyson. His semi-autobiographical poem, ‘The Prelude’, raised little interest when it was published by his widow after his death, but it has come to be viewed as his masterpiece.

Born Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall in 1880, Hall wrote eight novels, the most famous being ‘The Well of Loneliness’. With its overtly lesbian theme, the book was published in 1928, but was deemed obscene and was withdrawn from circulation, not appearing again until 1949.

Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943) was largely ignored by her parents as she was growing up, and began writing and sketching as a means of occupying her time. She would come to create some of the most enduringly popular children’s stories ever written.

John Locke (1632-1704) was considered the father of Classical Liberalism. His ‘An Essay Concerning Human Understanding’ was a milestone in the developing comprehension of the human mind.

Sir Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’ is a complex, innovative and penetrating contribution to political thought, culminating in the famous ’description’ of the Utopians, who live according to the principles of natural law, but are receptive to Christian teachings, who hold all possessions in common, and view gold as worthless.

Born in Norfolk, Thomas Paine (1737 – 1809) emigrated to the British colonies in America in 1774, in time to support and participate in the fight for American independence. Subseqently, he became involved in the French Revolution, and his book ‘The Rights of Man’ earned the respect of liberals throughout the world, international repute and the ire of the British Government. His popularity suffered a complete collapse with the publication of ‘The Age of Reason’, with its attack on Christianity, and religion in general, although, in time, the book could be seen to reflect the underlying trend in American thought in the eighteenth century, and ‘The Rights of Man’ to define many of the principles of both of the revolutions in whuch he participated.

The sub-title of the latest biography of Aleister Crowley (1875 – 1947), ‘Spiritual Revolutionary, Romantic Explorer, Occult Master – and Spy’, gives something of the flavour of his extraordinary life. Identifying himself with the ‘Great Wild Beast 666’, among his vast literary output was some fascinating short fiction which is gathered together in two Wordworth collections.