About this event

Dr Oliver Tearle (pictured left), an English lecturer in the School of the Arts, English and Drama, will present his latest work, The Secret Library: A Book-Lover's Journey Through Curiosities of History as part of Tamworth Literary Festival.

As well as leafing through well-known and influential titles which have helped shape the literary world, The Secret Library also looks at some of the more neglected items sitting on bookshelves of the past.

You'll learn about the forgotten Victorian novelist who outsold Dickens, the woman who became the first published poet in America and the eccentric traveller who introduced the table-fork to England. Through exploring a variety of books - novels, plays, travel books, science books, cookbooks, joke books and sports almanacs - The Secret Library highlights some of the most fascinating aspects of our history. It also reveals the surprising connections between various works and historical figures. What links Homer's Iliad to Aesop's Fables? Or Wisden Cricketers' Almanack to the creator of Sherlock Holmes?

It is set to be a fascinating evening. You can watch a sneak preview of Dr Tearle's informative and entertaining delivery in a video about TS Eliot's The Waste Land, which is designed to offer fresh insight to A level students studying the text.