Full edition in modern spelling of Aubrey's racy portraits of greatfigures of 16-17c England, from Sir Walter Raleigh to John Milton. John Aubrey's racy portraits of the great figures of 17th-centuryEngland stand alongside Pepys's diary as a vivid evocation of the period. Aubrey was born in 1626, the son of a Wiltshire squire; at the age of 26 he inherited a family estate encumbered with debt, and finally went bankrupt in the 1670s. From then on he led a sociable, rootless existence at the houses of friends - from Oxford and the Middle Temple -pursuing the antiquarian studies which had always obsessed him. At his death in 1697 he left a mass of notes and manuscripts, among them the material for Brief Lives. He never managed to put even a single life into logical order; all we have are the raw materials, scribbled down -`tumultuously as they occurred to my thoughts'. With this full, modern English edition, which reproduces Aubrey's words as closely as possible, Richard Barber introduces us to Aubrey and his world, tells how the Lives came into being and enables many new readers to enjoy this eccentric masterpiece.

All thirteen episodes of the drama series starring Derek Jacobi as the medieval sleuth. In the opening episode 'One Corpse Too Many', Cadfael, once a man of the world, has become a man of the cloth. However, this by no means qualifies him as a saint. He discovers a murder, and sets out in pursuit of the perpertrator, assisted by a lovely young fugitive. 'The Sanctuary Sparrow' sees Brother Cadfael investigating the murder of the local goldsmith. In 'The Leper of St Giles' a great wedding is to take place in the Abbey of Shrewsbury between Baron Huon (Norman Eshley) and Iveta De Massard (Tara Fitzgerald). Iveta is a beautiful, kind soul and on the day she and her betrothed ride into the town she throws money to the lepers, but her brutish Baron beats them. On the eve of the wedding he rides off into the night never to return. Cadfael sets out to find out what is going on. In 'Monk's Hood', a landowner cuts his son-in-law out of his will, leaving his inheritance to the church. However, before the transaction is finished, Gervase Gurney (Bernard Gallagher) is poisoned whilst staying at the Abbey of Shrewsbury. Cadfael finds someone from his past as he looks into the poisoning. In 'The Virgin in the Ice' Cadfael has to prove the innocence of his novice, Oswin (Mark Charnock), who is accused of murdering a nun after he is found wandering deliriously. In 'The Devil's Novice', Cadfael is suspicious when a young man, Meriet (Christien Anholt), arrives at Shrewsbury Abbey wishing to become a Novice. Canon Eluard (Ian McNeice) shares Cadfael's doubts as to Meriet's intentions, and when the half-burned body of a colleague is discovered, Meriet is accused of murder. In 'A Morbid Taste For Bones', Cadfael reluctantly accompanies an expedition to dig up the grave of St Winifred, after one of the Shrewsbury monks has a vision. He soon finds himself investigating a murder, when Lord Rhysart (John Hallam) is found dead on a forest track with an arrow in his chest. Robert (Michael Culver) believes the culprit to be Godwin, who was having an affair with Rhysart's daughter, Sioned (Anna Friel). However, Cadfael has other ideas. In 'The Rose Rent', the recently-widowed of a rich merchant becomes an attraction for the men of Shrewsbury, until one of her suitors and a monk are murdered. In 'St Peter's Fair', conflict arises between the townspeople of Shrewsbury and visitors to the annual fair. In 'The Raven in the Foregate', Cadfael has a double murder to solve when a pregnant girl and a priest who refused to hear her confession are both killed. In 'The Holy Thief', Cadfael is on the hunt for a beautiful slave girl and the bones of St Winifred, both of which have mysteriously disappeared from the Abbey. In 'The Potter's Field', Cadfael uncovers a terrible web of jealousy, adultery and suicide pacts when he examines the past of a potter who has entered the monastery under suspicious circumstances. Finally, in 'The Pilgrim of Hate', an old man's corpse is found in a sack in the Abbey, and Cadfael must find his killer.