Hear about the children's books which inspired Swallows and Amazons.

Take a closer look at the manuscript of Cider with Rosie.

Go on an adventure with Confessions of an English Opium Eater as you confess yourself and explore Thomas De Quincey’s Edinburgh.

See the magazine where Confessions was first published.

See the changes George Eliot made as she wrote The Mill on the Floss.

Find out about the real children and the books behind Swallows and Amazons.

Learn about the deadly war for readers in Georgian London and write your own confessions.

Take your interest in literature further by studying with the Open University. 

Learn how Victorian children would have enjoyed an expensive book like Edward Lear's collections of nonsense verse.