Culture24's top ten literary history and heritage stories of 2014

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

It was a vintage year for the UK's literary heritage - here are ten of the most popular Culture24 stories of 2014

a photo of an open book with portrait of Jane Austen on its frontispieceA memoir of Jane Austen© West Dean College and Gardens
Newly revealed handwritten Jane Austen text offers tantalising link to Mansfield Park

What is it about Jane Austen that get's the web talking? If we knew, we would bottle it and sell it. This story about a note handwritten by Austen in 1814, which experts said could throw light on her thought processes relating to her great morality novel, Mansfield Park, was our most popular literary history story of the year.

a photo of a woman leaning over an open bookCurator Natalie McCaul with the Richard III House Book in York© Yorkshire Museum
600-year-old Richard III manuscript turns the page at Yorkshire Museum

A parchment shown in York recounted Richard III's decision to watch Corpus Christi Mystery Plays, detailed the money spent on hosting the Royal visit and revealed the preparations made by planners to welcome him.

A black and white photo of a beach scene with palm trees and boats and mountains© National Library of Australia
Handwritten tales of 18th century English convicts who fled across Australia revealed

The personal accounts of 18th century British prisoners who escaped New South Wales on a journey across Australia were revealed by University College London. Discovered in the personal collection of Jeremy Bentham, these vivid accounts brought to life one of the most notorious escape stories of colonial Australia.

a photo of an envelope and fileA Study in Scarlet, cover for sheet of notes© Courtesy the Conan Doyle Estate
Arthur Conan Doyle notebook containing first ever lines of Sherlock Holmes goes on show

The first Sherlock Holmes ever committed to paper, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the opening lines of a notebook the author used while practising medicine in Southsea between 1885 and 1889, went on public view in a story of a “terrified woman” rushing to a taxi.

a crude pencil sketch of a couple copulatingA sketch in the margin of the Book of St Albans© Cambridge University Library
Dirty doodles and copulating couples: Cambridge University's use and abuse of books 1450-1550

A passionate pencil portrait of a saucy couple, lewdly embracing at the foot of an otherwise untarnished page in one of the most famous and collectable books in English printing history; just one of the unexpected highlights in an exhibition at Cambridge University showing how ancient books were used and abused.

a portrait of William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare © University of Texas Portrait Gallery via Wikimedia Commons
The National Archives' priceless handwritten Shakespeare documents recognised by UNESCO

In June, a unique and valuable set of handwritten Shakespeare documents held at the National Archives got UNESCO recognition. Highlights included a letter patent authorising Shakespeare and his companions to perform plays throughout the realm under royal patronage and William Shakespeare’s will, made in March 25 1616 and authenticated in June 22 1616, bearing his signature.

a photo of Jane Asher with a cakeJane Asher launches Cakespeare© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
V&A's Cakespeare has bakers making Bard inspired cakes for Shakespeare's birthday

Another Bard-inspired story centred around a Cakespeare competition, launched by the V&A to bake a cake for the Bard's 450th birthday - resulting in some weird and wonderful creations.

A photo of two people looking scared in a black and white gothic horror cinema filmElsa Lanchester and Boris Karloff in The Bride of Frankenstein (1939)© Universal / The Kobal Collection
From Dracula to Jack the Ripper, British Library's Terror of Wonder shines light on darkness

Autumn drew visitors to the British Library, where two and a half centuries of Gothic literature and its many guises: brooding and bloodthirsty, supernatural and salacious, dark and decadent. It all made for a complex and contradictory but somehow compelling journey in to the very nature of Gothic.

a photo of a wheel painted with country scenes and the signs of the ZodiacA painted Wheel of the Year on display alongside folkloric books at Cornwall's Museum of Witchcraft© Museum of Witchcraft
Ten of the best places in Britain to see weird and wonderful books

For World Book Day we selected ten of the best British venues to see the most famous and unusual books ever written. Our miscellany included strange Wicca tracts from the Museum of Witchcraft in Cornwall and the Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts of the Fitzwilliam Museum.

A photo of two children locking arms with a statue outside a historic houseNew adventures at Moat Brae House in Dumfries© Graeme Robertson
Peter Pan birthplace to become Scottish Centre for Children's Stories after winning £1.8 million

“Our aims are to nurture the memories of past writers and to encourage the emergence of new young talent – to respect our extraordinary literary inheritance and to enable children's imaginations to fly, like Peter Pan,” said Joanna Lumley, the Patron of the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust. The Trust had saved the Georgian town house just days before the building was due to be demolished in 2009.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

More from Culture24's review of 2014:

Top ten science and nature stories of 2014

Top ten archaeology stories of 2014

Top ten military history stories of 2014


Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk//history-and-heritage/literature-and-music/art511041-culture24s-top-ten-literary-history-and-heritage-stories-of-2014


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