16 Jan 07

The latest update of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was published earlier this month, adding more than 200 entries on noteworthy men and women who died in 2003.

Oxford University features prominently in the new update, with biographies of the politician and former University Chancellor Lord Jenkins, as well as Oxford historians Robert Blake, Hugh Trevor-Roper, J. M. Roberts, and Christopher Hill. Nearly 40 of the 202 new people now added to the Dictionary were educated at Oxford, including the journalist Hugo Young, explorer Wilfred Thesiger, judge and prison reformer Sir Stephen Tumim, and weapons inspector David Kelly.

The January 2007 update includes a wide range of individuals who made significant contributions to twentieth-century British life, from politicians, sportsmen, and pop-stars to journalists, business leaders, and the simply remarkable, such as Susan Travers, the first woman to join the French foreign legion. The new lives bring the total number of people now included in the Dictionary's online edition to more than 56,000.

For the first time a selection of new livesamong them actress Thora Hird, musician Maurice Gibb, and prime ministerial consort Denis Thatcherare also available as free podcasts, which marks the start of the Oxford DNB's weekly biography.

The online edition of the Oxford DNB is now available via public libraries across the United Kingdom, as well as overseas, with home access for library card members. Online the Dictionary is updated three times year, with January's release adding biographies of people who died in the 21^st century, and updates each May and October extending its coverage of people from all periods of British history.