For #NationalHandwritingDay, here's the opening of Jane Austen’s story Catharine or the Bower, written when she was a teenager. http://bit.ly/2jdPwy1

See this and more of her writings at our Jane Austen Among Family and Friends display.

Do you know what a herbal is? It's a book of plants describing their appearance, their properties and how they may be used for preparing ointments and medicines.

Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal is notable for its beautiful illustrations of medicinal plants. It was an unprecedented artistic, scientific and commercial enterprise for a woman of her time. Blackwell drew, engraved and coloured the illustrations herself, a great accomplishment that would usually have taken at least three different artists and craftsmen. See more of this beautiful work: bit.ly/2jrBZjD

This year marks the bicentenary of the death of Jane Austen. In a free display that opens today, three remarkable manuscripts of her teenage writings are brought together for the first time in 40 years, including a special loan from the Bodleian Library.

Austen’s treasured notebooks contain stories and poems she wrote to entertain her family and close friends and are accompanied by other items showing her strong family and social networks. See this display in our Treasures Gallery. Ends 19 February 2017. http://bit.ly/2iflXvk

Photos: Tony Antoniou

'Would you not like to try all sorts of lives - one is so very small - but that is the satisfaction of writing - one can impersonate so many people.'

Katherine Mansfield died #onthisday in 1923. One of the most highly regarded short story writers of the 20th century, she helped re-define the genre and was considered a pioneer of the modern short story.

#DiscoverLiterature and explore close readings of three stories from Mansfield’s celebrated collection, The Garden Party and Other Stories. http://bit.ly/2iZSu9T

Artist Gustave Doré, born #onthisday in 1832, teamed up with journalist Blanchard Jerrold to produce an illustrated record of the ‘shadows and sunlight’ of London.

Contemporary critics had severe reservations about their book: Doré disliked sketching in public so there were many errors of detail; it showed only the extremes of society, and Jerrold’s text was superficial. Despite these criticisms, Doré’s work has become celebrated for its dramatic use of light and shade, and the power of his images to capture the atmosphere of mid-Victorian London.

This illustration shows Billingsgate Market in the early morning. Explore more of his illustrations: http://bit.ly/2iA3DO4

It's #NationalBirdDay in the US. These snowy owls are from Audubon's Birds Of America. Originally published between 1827 and 1838, John Jame's Audubon's four-volume book features 435 hand-coloured, life-size prints. http://bit.ly/2hRzjxC

#Onthisday in 1170 Thomas Becket was killed by King Henry II's knights in Canterbury Cathedral. They were said to have been incited to action by Henry’s exasperated words, ‘What miserable drones and traitors have I nurtured and promoted in my household who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born clerk!’

This manuscript contains the first known manuscript miniature of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, depicting the Archbishop struck down while at prayer in Canterbury Cathedral. http://bit.ly/2igZexg

‘Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.’

Do you recognise these famous opening lines? Explore a first edition of Dickens’s A #Christmas Carol this festive season. http://bit.ly/2hygLA7

#ChristmasCountdown

Crackers. Cards. Carols.

Did you know the ‘traditional’ British #Christmas we know today is not found in the mists of history, but is entirely a product of industrialisation? Explore how the Victorians created a very merry Christmas http://bit.ly/2hINYM7

This cover illustration from the quadrille ‘Around the Christmas Tree’ (estimated 1876) shows what a Christmas tree might have looked like in the late Victorian period.

#ChristmasCountdown